Shopify Journey. Aiming for 2K a month

[monkasam]

Hello BHW,

Little history about myself before. Around 10 years ago I started looking around on BHW when a classmate showed me the forums. I was interested and started doing CPA through Instagram (god banned a lot) and selling merch (using a public figures image) on FB. I made decent money at the time (i was 16/17) but obviously it wasnt a lot. After that I havent really done much. Recently I have found a new interest in dropshipping using Shopify. I have set up a store and am using Oberlo to list alieexpress products untill i can eventually work with a real supplier. To generate traffic i am using socinator. So far it's going well for traffic but no sales yet. I dont expect to sell right a way so its fine.

My ultimate goal is to make around 2k a month, this will probably take some time but i am very dedicated. Currently i am listing phone accessories and watches.

i would like to hear some of you guy's stories and maybe tips on how to generate more traffic and get sales.

So far, I have spent $30 on the shop (monthly fee) and $30 to promote my instagram post. Im also using my own domain. So far it has been seen by over 7k people but only 33 website clicks. I think i messed up the target audience but im still learning.

Would love to hear from you. Will keep updating weekly.

 

[grandkai]

As long as you keep working hard + smart, things would defo go your way. Following.

 

[vigyavan]

You said 10 years ago? Your profile says you joined Thursday, LOL

 

[Andrei Dinescu]

Maybe it's a new account. I am in the same boat. First found out about BHW in 2012, did some Sharecash money and kind of abandoned it afterwards. I rejoined a couple of months ago with a new account.

Good luck buddy!

 

[monkasam]

Short in between update.

With very little effort I am able to get around 50 people on my store a day. No sales obviously.

Right now I want to focus on what products I should list. For this I would like some tips. I've read about Facebook Pixel and want to learn more about it. I also want to search for other shops and Facebook pages/ads to see what people are interested in. If i have enough information I want to created targeted ads on Facebook. I feel like Instagram is way to slow to grow and from my past experiences a good targeted Facebook ad generates more traffic and sales.

Tips are always welcome.

 

[Bleach17]

It's gonna take some time untill you reach your golden ad campaigns. Just research lookalike shops like yours to see what people order the most and if you can beat them by price or quality then you open the doors widely.

 

[aspherixlol]

i know you can do it, work hard, work smart, and consistent, good luck man

 

[Matta28]

Looking forward for updates! I might re-open my shopify store again, wasted alot of money on it last year on ads

 

[monkasam]

Update:

I have experimented with different methods of advertising:

Boosting Instagram post directly from the Instagram app
Boosting Instagram post to Instagram and Facebook through FBS (Facebook Business Suite)
Boosting Instagram post through FBS to stories

so far I have spent 55 Euro on advertisements. in my opinion, advertising through FBS is the best way and having the post appear in feeds and explore. story is not so great, the views are good but conversion is low.

Results: (3 posts on IG)
total reach: 39.600 accounts reached
posts saved: 76
store visits: 181
sales: 0*

so far the reach is decent I would say. can be better but im currently experimenting with better targeting for the ads.
*i have had one abandoned checkout. one person tried to buy an item for 37 euro but abandoned at payment. i think this is due to me only having creditcard and paypal as payments since i do not have a VAT number yet. the person that wanted to buy is located in The Netherlands where paypal and creditcards are not that popular or a payment method. getting a VAT number will allow me to add national banking as a payment option.

There clearly is interest in the items im selling, but i should for now shift my focus on UK/US where more people use paypal and credit cards.
I am also not going to invest more time/money in the shop untill i have sold at least a few items and can use that money to pay for a better dropshipping app in shopify, one that lets me list items with shipping from EU and USA but costs 30 a month.

For now, i am still going to focus on instagram. i have done some manual follow/unfollow work but it is extremely slow. i believe that i will make a sale very soon.

 

[avengerfrompast]

Following your thread.

 

[breakcode]

OP do you use a business paypal or private?
And can you accept credit card payments without open a society?

 

[monkasam]

OP do you use a business paypal or private?
And can you accept credit card payments without open a society?

business paypal.

 

[bartono]

181 visits and no sales?
I would like to see your ad and product page.

 

[SERPhustler]

Good luck with your journey! Following! Btw is that the store in your website field? If yes, you might need to design it a little bit further and polish it to make it look more legit. It looks lame, no offence whatsoever and I wouldn't buy from it even if it had the best products. So, there it goes! Rest, all the best my friend!

 

[monkasam]

Good luck with your journey! Following! Btw is that the store in your website field? If yes, you might need to design it a little bit further and polish it to make it look more legit. It looks lame, no offence whatsoever and I wouldn't buy from it even if it had the best products. So, there it goes! Rest, all the best my friend!

thank you for your feedback, im going to redesign the website soon.

 

[monkasam]

I have redesigned the website a bit and moved to a better dropshipping solution. currently focussed on good quality mobile cases.

 

[ballsofsteel]

I have redesigned the website a bit and moved to a better dropshipping solution. currently focussed on good quality mobile cases.

Site looks a whole lot better now than before. I see that the watches are back. Honestly I would focus on just one type of product starting out. Good luck on your journey!

Edit: A thing I noticed is that you don't link your ToS and policies. I finally found them once I clicked got to the information part of the checkout.

 

[Saba1991]

in my opinion, advertising through FBS is the best way and having the post appear in feeds and explore. story is not so great, the views are good but conversion is low

Everything works if you know how to optimize. You mentioned that stories don't work - it could be your particular case but in most cases (in my personal and my friends' cases) stories on both, FB and IG work like a charm. You just have to find winner account (big followers base, cheap price so you get profit, etc.)

Cheers, I'll follow this journey and wish you the best . just keep in mind that work consistently, don't abandon soon, because sooner or later you'll find winner strategy and then you can scale really quick

 

[monkasam]

So, it's been over a week since I started and here are the numbers.

268 website visitors
0 sales (1 abandoned checkout a while ago)

Amount spent on ads
I'd say 100ish (wasn't really keeping up)

I did have a shitty webshop layout for a while, but I think it looks more professional now. It's kinda hard getting it to look good with free templates. I don't want to commit to a paid one just yet.

My ads are running better. I have found a good target (age, interests and location).
With a new ad i started 2 days ago:

Reach: 5825
Clicks: 28
Spent: €8.73

I have noticed that when creating an ad its best to uncheck the box next to Instagram. For some reason I was getting way less leads/reach when putting my ad on Instagram.
Facebook only is giving me better statistics.
I still believe that I will make a purchase soon, It's just gonna take some time. But when I do, I will pretty much earn back everything I've spent so far on everything.
I'm also growing my IG page using socinator. I'm doing follow/unfollow, comments and sending DM's on a seasoned account. So far 0 blocks. I'm running it on medium speed.

I would like to get some suggestions. What should/can I do to encourage sales? I have compared my prices to another webshop and have lowered them while still making a decent profit.
All tips are welcome. I would also pay someone to help me grow my IG, get better ad reach and sales.

 

[monkasam]

I made a mistake on the amount spent on ads.
It is not 100. Not even close. I "wasted" 50 on IG promotion, never again. I think it's about 60 spent so far in total. A lot of ads I cancelled when I saw they didnt do so good, so each time I spent a couple of euro's per ad.