Believe it or not, it's more than possible to build a six-figure e-commerce brand in less than one ... [+]
Generating significant revenue each month is the dream goal for anyone starting their own e-commerce brand. Unfortunately, many fail to generate any sales at all—in fact, Practical Ecommerce estimates that e-commerce brands experience an 80% failure rate.
Despite this alarming statistic, building a six-figure e-commerce company is far from impossible. This became abundantly clear during my recent interview with Levi Feigenson, cofounder and CEO of Mushie.
Feigenson launched the eco-friendly infant accessories brand in July of 2018 with his wife and generated $27,800 in revenue during their first month of business. The brand has seen incredible growth over the course of the past year, and this month, they're set to do approximately $450,000 in sales.
So how did Mushie manage to achieve such an impressive growth rate in a relatively short amount of time? While quality products certainly played a role, much of their success can be attributed to a few key e-commerce sales and marketing tactics—strategies that other e-commerce retailers can learn from and implement as well.
Leverage Influencer Marketing
In the marketing space, Mushie has seen some of its biggest growth through influencer marketing. “Instagram has been an important platform for us,” Feigenson says.
He continues, “When we started, we reached out to hundreds of influencers. We sent our products to micro-influencers with 4,000 followers, as well as bigger ones with over 800,000 followers, like Jenna Kutcher and Cara Loren. This put our products in front of millions of people.”
Whether working with a big influencer or a smaller micro-influencer, looking for individuals who can make a more authentic pitch for your product and have a relevant target audience is essential for a successful collaboration.
When done right, the results can be incredible across many different industries. A case study for Silk Almond Milk found that an influencer marketing campaign generated a return on investment 11 times greater than their digital banner ads. Households that viewed the influencer marketing material purchased 10% more products than households that didn’t.
You don’t need a Kardashian level influencer to get these results, either. Find the right influencers for your niche, and develop authentic collaborations through a variety of deliverables ranging from Instagram posts and stories, to guest blog posts, podcast shoutouts, YouTube reviews and you'll grow your reach over time.
Use Wholesaling To Make Offline Sales
“While you should never neglect individual customers, in our niche, we’ve found that there are many stores that want to carry our types of products on their shelves. Even though the end customers aren’t buying from us directly, this also serves as a great way for us to gain exposure in an offline setting,” Feigenson explains. “Even better, when you sell to retailers, you have the benefit of selling a large quantity of products in a single transaction.”
In the wholesale market, retailers buy products in bulk, typically at a discounted price in comparison to what the products would be sold for individually. While the discounted price is beneficial for the retailer, the potential exposure (and upside for repeat customers) yields great dividends for the brand.
Retailers have distribution networks and resources that ensure an e-commerce brand’s products get on store shelves. This is more important than you might expect. While countless articles have been written claiming that brick and mortar stores are dying, in the United States, e-commerce only accounted for 13% of total retail sales in 2017.
Even though e-commerce sales are experiencing faster growth, brick and mortar sales numbers are still increasing as well—they rose by 2% from 2016 to 2017. As a result, getting products on store shelves today can help your brand make additional online sales tomorrow.
Unleash The Power Of Amazon
Though Amazon’s share of the e-commerce market has dipped as more competitors have entered the fray, it's still expected to capture about 38% of all e-commerce sales in the United States during 2019. With billions of orders placed each year, it's clear that there's a significant potential audience on their platform.
Because of this, Mushie entered the Fulfillment by Amazon market.
“Doing Fulfillment by Amazon was extremely helpful for growing our digital sales,” Feigenson said. “Not only did it alleviate our inventory concerns, but it also gives us access to a huge new audience of customers and the marketing tools to reach even more customers both on and off of Amazon. It’s been an extremely valuable sales channel.”
Research shows that Amazon advertising can help the buying process from start to finish. In fact, USA Today reports that “55% of online shoppers start their buying research on Amazon.” As The New York Times has also reported, Amazon’s impressive array of customer data allows advertisers to better target the customers who are more likely to purchase their products based on past buying behaviors.
Perhaps most importantly, however, individuals who are browsing Amazon are already looking to make a purchase. This greatly increases the potential ROI of Amazon advertising, because targeted consumers are no longer in the discovery phase of the buyer’s funnel—they're ready to buy. This results in higher-value clicks and stronger conversion rates.
While there's no denying the importance of your website in growing your e-commerce brand, Mushie's example makes it clear that it should never be your only source of revenue.
As you improve your marketing tactics and create additional revenue streams, you'll be far better positioned to increase sales and build a lasting brand.
