Introduce your business and tell us your story: How did you decide on what to sell, and how did you source your products?
We worked in a retail store and saw a market that wasn't be served properly. Knew we could do it much better! We source from manufacturers based in the United States.
How did you earn your first sales? Which channels are now generating the most traffic and sales for you?
Our first sales were made thanks to video reviews of our products (large swingsets) being uploaded to YouTube. No one else in the industry was doing this. This lead to many large sales across the United States. YouTube, social media and word of mouth generate the most sales for us. Many local mom groups talk about their experience which facilitates much of our business.
Tell us about the back-end of your business. What tools and apps do you use to run your store? How do you handle shipping and fulfillment?
Olark Chat is by far the most helpful. Customers get instant answers to their questions and appreciate this more than anything else. Power Tools Suite allows us to sort products by their characteristics; this sets us apart from all other swingset websites. Metafields lets us write custom ship times and other custom data into each product listing. Shipping-wise, we drop ship half our items and ship the other half out of our store.
What are your top recommendations for new store owners?
Keep trying new things. Fail quickly, and learn from the failures to consistently make your website, products, and consumer purchasing experience better!