TED40
Newbie
- Jun 25, 2020
- 5
- 0
Hi all,
I was just after a little bit of advice and clarification on something. I am UK-based and I know that dropshipping/ecommerce nowadays can be a hugely competitive and cutthroat game, whatever your niche. I am looking to start a store based around the adult toy/products industry (I know the competition is high) and so I'm really just after some feedback from people!
My aim is to supply primarily the UK-based market and from a UK-based dropshipper. This should help to minimise waiting/delivery times.
I've summarised a few of my questions below and would be very grateful for any feedback or advice that people might be able to share!
Platform: I know that most people nowadays go for Shopify but I'd rather not do this for a number of reasons. I'm trying to keep costs down but also after reading a number of the horror stories about Shopify just shutting stores down without any explanation and holding peoples' images/product descriptions etc, I just don't feel that they are a trustworthy company. I would rather have full control over my own store. I have been thinking of going with Wordpress/Woocommerce (at least to start with) and wondered if anybody might have any experience(s) that they could share regarding the platforms that you have used?
Blogging: With a limited budget for advertising (at least initially), I know that blogging can be very helpful from an organic SEO perspective. What I wondered is if people tend to use a blog as part of their actual store site (yourdomain. com/blog) or if a totally separate installation of Wordpress under separate domain name (yourdomainblog. com) is a better approach?
In most of the WooCommerce/Wordpress ecommerce themes that I've looked at, their "example" stores seem to always be set up with the blog integrated into the store site itself and I just wondered if this made any real difference in terms of things like traffic?
PO Boxes: Obviously as I'd be running the dropshipping business from my home, is it worth getting one of these "virtual addresses" or a Royal Mail PO Box address? Are there any legalities involved here that anybody knows of and/or has anybody got any experience of using them and how they actually work in practice? For example things like customer returns or faulty items and such?
Returns: How have people found dealing with things like unwanted items where the customer has changed their mind and decided to return an item? I know that particularly "intimate" items have their own set of rules and regulations around returns and refunds but was wondering how people on their own ecommerce journey may have dealt with returns?
Payment processors: I know that there are some payment processors who will not entertain anything adult-related. I know that FB in particular will not approve ads for them as well. Speaking more generally about payment processors, I know that the "obvious" choices for most people are Paypal and/or Stripe etc but again after having heard some very bad accounts of how these companies have held onto peoples' money for months on end and essentially stolen it, have people had any better experiences with other companies, or even banks? Cashflow is of course critical to any business, and I just think that the policy of holding your money for weeks on end would make doing business with these providers very risky.
Customer contact/service: I wondered how people have managed to fit a good customer service experience around a dropshipping model? I see that a number of sites have the usual "contact us" section with a form etc but also a phone number? Having to be available to speak to customers on the phone seems to somewhat undermine the "principle" (for want of a better word) behind a dropshipping store? Any examples of how people are able to provide a reassuring customer service model to their clients, and how they have found it, would be greatly appreciated! My aim is always to go the extra mile for customers because without customers, you have no business. I feel that it's a bit of a 'balancing act' to get right, moreso with the ecommerce model!
Can anybody recommend any books/resources/guides on how to best configure an ecommerce store? One thing that I have run into before is how to best construct my categories and subcategories, leading to a bit of a cluttery menu layout. Does anybody use a particular "method" to set this part of their store up to make it a nice browsing experience for their customers? I think that this is vital to make my store as user-friendly as possible for people and I just wondered how others might approach it.
Any advice that anybody can give would be very gratefully received
Tim
I was just after a little bit of advice and clarification on something. I am UK-based and I know that dropshipping/ecommerce nowadays can be a hugely competitive and cutthroat game, whatever your niche. I am looking to start a store based around the adult toy/products industry (I know the competition is high) and so I'm really just after some feedback from people!
My aim is to supply primarily the UK-based market and from a UK-based dropshipper. This should help to minimise waiting/delivery times.
I've summarised a few of my questions below and would be very grateful for any feedback or advice that people might be able to share!
Platform: I know that most people nowadays go for Shopify but I'd rather not do this for a number of reasons. I'm trying to keep costs down but also after reading a number of the horror stories about Shopify just shutting stores down without any explanation and holding peoples' images/product descriptions etc, I just don't feel that they are a trustworthy company. I would rather have full control over my own store. I have been thinking of going with Wordpress/Woocommerce (at least to start with) and wondered if anybody might have any experience(s) that they could share regarding the platforms that you have used?
Blogging: With a limited budget for advertising (at least initially), I know that blogging can be very helpful from an organic SEO perspective. What I wondered is if people tend to use a blog as part of their actual store site (yourdomain. com/blog) or if a totally separate installation of Wordpress under separate domain name (yourdomainblog. com) is a better approach?
In most of the WooCommerce/Wordpress ecommerce themes that I've looked at, their "example" stores seem to always be set up with the blog integrated into the store site itself and I just wondered if this made any real difference in terms of things like traffic?
PO Boxes: Obviously as I'd be running the dropshipping business from my home, is it worth getting one of these "virtual addresses" or a Royal Mail PO Box address? Are there any legalities involved here that anybody knows of and/or has anybody got any experience of using them and how they actually work in practice? For example things like customer returns or faulty items and such?
Returns: How have people found dealing with things like unwanted items where the customer has changed their mind and decided to return an item? I know that particularly "intimate" items have their own set of rules and regulations around returns and refunds but was wondering how people on their own ecommerce journey may have dealt with returns?
Payment processors: I know that there are some payment processors who will not entertain anything adult-related. I know that FB in particular will not approve ads for them as well. Speaking more generally about payment processors, I know that the "obvious" choices for most people are Paypal and/or Stripe etc but again after having heard some very bad accounts of how these companies have held onto peoples' money for months on end and essentially stolen it, have people had any better experiences with other companies, or even banks? Cashflow is of course critical to any business, and I just think that the policy of holding your money for weeks on end would make doing business with these providers very risky.
Customer contact/service: I wondered how people have managed to fit a good customer service experience around a dropshipping model? I see that a number of sites have the usual "contact us" section with a form etc but also a phone number? Having to be available to speak to customers on the phone seems to somewhat undermine the "principle" (for want of a better word) behind a dropshipping store? Any examples of how people are able to provide a reassuring customer service model to their clients, and how they have found it, would be greatly appreciated! My aim is always to go the extra mile for customers because without customers, you have no business. I feel that it's a bit of a 'balancing act' to get right, moreso with the ecommerce model!
Can anybody recommend any books/resources/guides on how to best configure an ecommerce store? One thing that I have run into before is how to best construct my categories and subcategories, leading to a bit of a cluttery menu layout. Does anybody use a particular "method" to set this part of their store up to make it a nice browsing experience for their customers? I think that this is vital to make my store as user-friendly as possible for people and I just wondered how others might approach it.
Any advice that anybody can give would be very gratefully received
Tim
