Becky is a mompreneur from St. Louis, MO. At night, she runs a successful online baby boutique, UltimateBabyBoutique.com, that has doubled its gross sales each of its last three years in business.
(source: ultimatebabyboutique.com)
How did you get started in ecommerce?
Always the ‘online shopping maverick’ among my family and friends, I was bitten by the ecommerce bug in September of 2006 when a friend asked me to make her a diaper cake for her sister-in-law’s baby shower (I’m also really crafty). I found I enjoyed making the cakes so much, and they caught on amongst family and friends; that I decided to put them online. After giving birth to UltimateBabyBoutique.com, my husband suggested I add baby clothing to my product offerings because it is quicker to ship (no assembly required) than the diaper cakes. I’ve been obsessed with ecommerce ever since!
What successes have you seen in ecommerce?
Our first year online was really slow. We didn’t do any marketing, and really didn’t focus much on the site. By the end of 2007, we found a really popular niche product, started some Adwords advertising and finished up the year with about $25k in gross sales. Last year we added more products and tripled that number. This year we are on pace to hit $125k in gross sales. Even in the down economy, people are still having babies!
How do you get traffic to your Website?
My main source of traffic right now is paid search. I’m a firm believer in it, especially for new sites. However, paid search can get really expensive, quickly; and if you’re not careful, can tremendously eat into your profit margins. So this year, I’m focusing on keeping paid search advertising constant and focusing more on social media (Twitter™), sourcing mom blogs for reviews of my products and giveaways, and email marketing. Email worked very well for us in the past, but lately we just haven’t put much emphasis on it. I also love product feeds (Google® Base), and since ours is now automated daily, it seems like we get more traffic from there than ever before.
What are your biggest challenges?
Our biggest challenge is watching the financials. Online, it’s tough to get big margins on product since everyone competes on price. We work at balancing increased advertising costs with ROI on products. It’s a constant battle.
Also, product buying is a great challenge. Remember I said I was a shopping maverick, so I love to buy things! It helps that I always find great lines, but it’s tough deciding what to buy from a big line and finding the time to get it on the site just the way I want it. It’s easy to get distracted from your product mix goals with many product reps vying for your attention. I like to sit on a line for about a month before I buy it. I want to make sure that I don’t act too hastily and bring in product that doesn’t sell well (I have been burned here in the past!). Sometimes it’s hard to differentiate between a really cool, niche product that would fit well in another boutique and something that goes really well in our store. We want to be different from the rest, but not so different that we don’t make sense to our customers.
Fulfillment is a big challenge, too. Since we’re small, we rely on a few part-time workers to fill orders. If you go to those big ecommerce conferences, they will tell you that it’s all about keeping down the “average cost to fill order”. We struggle with that a lot because we have many people touching the process along the way. It’s tough to find new ways to communicate and stay on the same page (new products coming in, backordered products, etc), while minimizing mistakes (since they are expensive to fix). The upside of this, though, is that while we do make some mistakes, customers are usually understanding. We always make it right, and the customer usually ends up with a discount or free stuff for their trouble!
What aspects of running an online store do you like the most?
I watch out for every order…like a hawk. My heart literally flutters every time I see that “New Order” email come in! I love seeing what products people order, and my favorite part is picking the orders. I love knowing that these products will go to people who will love them and use them for their children.
Another favorite of mine is tweaking the site. This is probably a bad thing because I probably over-tweak sometimes. I just can’t leave the site alone.
I have gotten great amusement out of mining my Google® Analytics logs as well. I enjoy sifting through all the natural search keywords to see exactly how people are finding my site.
What tips would you share with others trying to grow their ecommerce business?
Keep trying! We all suffer from cash flow problems. A Top 500 guy I talked to said that when he and his partner were first starting their site, they each had 8 credit cards maxed out from buying product. You can’t do it all at once. You will grow, just at a slower pace than you might like. Success will still be there waiting for you in the end. Be patient.
One thing I love about ecommerce is that it’s instant. One tiny change that I make can have a huge impact on sales. Be willing to make these changes, but be willing to change back if they fail.
Post your site everywhere. Send links to friends, coworkers, loved ones. Get yourself on Facebook®, MySpace®, or Twitter™ (or all of the above!). Talk with people in forums, give advice freely and seek advice often. We can all help each other!
Have fun! Ecommerce is definitely not a ‘make money in your sleep’ kind of business. It takes just as much hard work and dedication to run an ecommerce store as it does brick and mortar, so you have to enjoy it.
Ask your customers for feedback! Ask them what product lines they want to see. Ask them what features they’d like your store to implement. Ask them how you can help them (often!). If you ask they will tell you. Then do what they ask (but if you ask, make sure you do follow through). Send them a non-sales email every once in a while just checking in and asking how you can make them happy. Give a coupon to those who respond to you.