Wix eCommerce | How to Make Your First 10 Online Sales

Hi everybody.

Thank you so much for joining us today. Today we're going to talk about how to get your first 10 sales. So in this live session we're gonna meet three, four actually very cool Wix merchants. We're gonna talk about three tools to help you make your first 10 sales. And we're going to participate in a live Q and A. So before we start, I'd like you to just be aware that this recording will be here once it's finished. So no need to take notes, just go back to this Facebook Live and watch it here once it ends. So before I start, I would like to introduce you to the team. So Asaf is here with me. Hi, Asaf. Asaf is the head of marketing of WIX stores. My name is Ariel. I also work on the WIX stores marketing team and I have, as I said, very cool three merchants which I'd like to present to you when I show the website. So Saf, if you can share it with us. So the first one is Sharon.

Hi.

So Sharon is the owner and founder of Highline Wigs. She's in New York. And Sharon, maybe you can tell us a little bit about your business.

Sure. So my business is I sell wigs and hairpieces, specifically gearing more to those who have hair loss, cancer. There's so many different types of hair losses that different women. I only really focus on women. I know men also, you know, suffer through hair loss but I haven't really gotten into that, you know, that genre yet. But I, you know, there's so many different reasons why women are wearing hair these days, whether it be extensions or wigs for hair loss or you know, just for fashion. You know, all the celebrities are wearing it these days. But my specific, I specifically gear towards those with hair loss. That's, you know, that's pretty much it. I do both wigs and clip on pieces for those who are fitting. Yeah.

Amazing.

She has a lot to share and very cool.

Give these specific questions, I'll know, I'll answer them directly. But that's pretty much what I do in a nutshell.

Super interesting story. And next we have here Jen and Mark.

Hello.

Hey.

From onefinity. So they sell CNC machines which I had to Google before I first met them. But I bet a lot of you guys know exactly what it is. But please introduce your business and tell us a little bit about it.

Hi.

So we started out years ago with an attachment to CNC machines, other companies, CNC Machines. And over the four years of doing the attachments, we Saw the need for a new CNC machine that corrects some of the issues that other ones were having. So Mark is an engineer so he designed a brand new one that solved a lot of the issues that some people were having and this is it.

Super cool.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here with us.

Thank you.

We have Hila here, Hila Ravat Carney from Industrial Jewelry. She's in the UK in London based and please tell us about your business. She's been with WIX for more than 10 years and we're so proud of her. We've known her for years and always enjoying to see her new website and new business and how it's coming along. So tell us a little bit.

Yeah, my name is Hila. I live in London, originally Israeli. I make fashion, fashion jewelry, handmade fashion jewelry and small leather goods. Our line is quite unique in the fact that my education quite a while ago but was in product design or industrial design. So the way I approach jewelry or design is just not the common way. I would say. I've never taken like blacksmithing or I don't, I don't do like silver and gold type of work. It's all unusual materials manipulated in different ways, kind of like reintroduced into accessories as Ariel was saying. I'm probably one of the first WIX users. I started with just kind of a business card, an online business card and the very free version of Wix and evolved quite a lot. They have two Wix websites, one is B2C. One is B2B. Yeah.

So, so glad to have you here with us.

Happy to be here.

Thank you so much. So you all guys are working in such different areas. One in jewelry, one in wigs, one is selling huge machines. Yeah, crazy. Tell us a little bit about how you started selling, like how, how did you get your first sale? And maybe Sharon can start.

Sure. So specifically on wix or in sales in general because I've only been on WIX for a few years now in general actually. Okay. So. Well, the story was I was really started selling, you know, more locally. I come from a Jewish background where the women in my community wear wigs once they get married. So I started selling more locally to those who, you know, wear them for that reason. But then I started wanting to work, you know, also outside of the home. I was a paralegal for a few years. So I kind of, you know, as a side job at the time. And while I was shopping for my own wig when I got married, I kind of was just buying and selling on ebay, actually, you know, locally, but also on ebay. Whatever didn't really work for me. Whatever didn't work for me. I would get my friends or, you know, I would sell on ebay and I would be in shock at how quickly they would sell. So that was kind of like my. That was kind of how I got into it. You know, it was more of buying it for myself and then eventually seeing how, you know, how well it sold. So I kept on buying more and more, you know, just to play around. And I saw that, you know, became really big that way. And then eventually I wanted to go out and get my own website. That's pretty much how I made my own still. I started selling pretty much on ebay. So those, you know, ebay has their own marketing platforms to get people's people to search in wigs and they can look it up that way. And then I eventually went on to wix when I already had a good following.

Good. Very interesting.

Yeah.

I have a quick question for you, Sharon. Who helped you sort of list it on ebay? Or were you just like playing around and figuring it out as you go?

So I was always pretty good at computers, not really building websites, but selling. So I was. I was always selling online even since I was like, little, you know, my old stuff, or I was actually selling, you know, women's clothing and jewelry at one point, you know, while I was in high school, just to, you know, make some money on the side. So I've always. No one really ever taught me it was more of like. I mean, I think ebay's pretty simple. You know, you list the item, you take pictures. I think it's pretty straightforward once you get the hang of it. So, I mean, my mother, maybe she also was into sales, so maybe she's taught me a little bit. But I was young at the time, but I think it's pretty much straightforward for ebay.

You're still young.

Yeah. Asaf, maybe you can show her website.

Is there anything in particular you want to share about the website? I know that you do also lot of sales through Instagram, but specifically on the website. How you, you know, if you scroll

down a little bit, you can see my. And I think my Instagram is connected, so that's all my sales. But scroll down. I don't know why it's not coming up, but it should be. It should be there. I guess I have to do some sort of glitch on my website, but yeah, it should be on the bottom. But yeah, my main platform of you know, social networking for my website would be through Instagram. I've, you know, as I talk more about, you know, I've now geared more towards those with hair loss and cancer. When I was on ebay, which is what I wanted to say, most of my clients have actually started buying from me on ebay. Weren't Jewish people wearing wigs? There was more people who had hair loss, cancer people, you know, something called trichotillomania where they, some women pull out their hair. Just, you know, there's so many different reasons why people would wear wigs. So I was really didn't even know this kind of world existed out there. And I mean, of course you know that there are some people who are born bald or people who of course get cancer, but you don't know that there's so many different types of kinds of hair losses that so many women are now interested in. And it's grown so much since I've started doing it about six years ago. I think it's really, really grown a lot. That's mostly my clientele these days. It's mostly those with hair loss. So my Instagram, I'm in a lot of different kinds of forums, Facebook and Instagram, you know, there's a whole like hair loss community on Instagram that I'm part of. You know, a lot of influencers now that has become, you know, through Instagram. And there's just, there's a lot of different ways to a lot of different, like social groups that you can join. Like for example, I know a lot of people who go through weight loss surgeries, they lose their hair a lot of times, you know, during that process or like those who, after you give birth, a lot of women lose their hair through that. So I would be a part of a lot of like Facebook groups, you know, for those on birth control or for those, you know, losing their hair after like, you know, for those post surgeries. I deal in a lot of those kind of Facebook groups and like, you know, you advertise kind of through them through that. And that's kind of where I. How I grew a lot.

Yeah.

Maybe.

Hila, maybe you can show us a little bit how you started your getting your first sales.

Sure. My main will, when I started off with the jewelry, my main channel was trade shows. So I didn't start selling to end clients. I started with selling to shops. One of the reasons jewelry was my final project in university and it was a hobby for a while. And when I moved London, it was 2009, it was an impossible time to find a job. And I thought I'd take some time and I'll try to make something out of it. While looking for a job in a designer in a big firm. I took my first WIX website, which was like my portfolio from university, and tried to make into the basic kind of like business card for my jewelry. And I went to trade shows. Back then you could go to a trade show for like $250. I came to New York now in a kind of talent section. Just tried it. Found this Jupiter in the us, a distributor, a big chain of fashion stores in Israel and started through that. And after a few years, I mean, I kept improving the website. It was always kind of like my business card or to see. It's also different times in Internet so people weren't looking online every moment. And it changed as I was like growing the business. And a little bit further on, I think I would say about 2010, 11, I realized that because my jewelry was displayed in quite a lot of stores by now, someone would buy them and then would look at the website and might want to find complimentary earrings to whatever necklace they bought. And I didn't accommodate that. I think in a way I was even a bit late for the game at that point. But yeah, kind of it was a phase where WIX also switched from flash to HTML. So I had to like redo my whole website, different times, Internet and introduce a store. And I kind of grew with the stores on wix. There was more and more demand and I kept kind of improving it. First sales, I guess in a way I had kind of a client base and so it was something that people were, you know, looking for. And it just keeps changing and evolving. I mean, you know, Internet and my business and everything together.

Super cool. Thank you, Mark. Jennifer, maybe you can tell us a little bit how you got your first sales. Because this is not obvious to sell a machine in.

No, no.

So like Jen said, harder to find your customer base. For sure.

Like Jen said, I'm a design engineer. And how it started was I was looking for ways to do prototypes. So I consulted for medical companies and I was looking for ways to do prototypes quickly. So I was looking for CNC machines, inexpensive ones, and I came across a couple.

Please, sorry, I just have to show us the website.

Oh, okay.

So yeah, so I bought one of these hobby CNC machines. This is probably five years ago. I quickly realized that there were some limitations with them. One of them was that they made a mess everywhere. So I designed a vacuum attachment for it. And all of a sudden, this machine was usable just by adding this attachment to it. Because before the dust would get everywhere or jam and bind and just wasn't really usable. So I designed this dust shoe and then Jen saw it and she was like. Because she was the one holding the vacuum while we were. While I was making the parts. And she was. Once she saw the dusty, she was like, hey, you know what? I bet you other people would really benefit from this. So we did a Kickstarter and that was successful. And then right after that, we didn't know what we were really gonna do with it. It was just kind of like a fun little, let's see what people will do with this. But right after the Kickstarter.

Mark, one second. Sorry that I'm disturbing in the middle. Can you just tell us a little bit about what's Kickstarter campaign?

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform. So it's really great for people that if you would like to. If you have a product and you want to sell it, but you don't really have the money to pay for the production parts or that sort of thing, it's an excellent way to sell to the customer. So the customer would actually purchase the idea, they would fund you. And for a reward for helping to fund the product, you get a discounted product earlier than what you would normally sell. So the Kickstarter, when we sold on the Kickstarter, we started in January 2016. And so the people that bought into that Kickstarter, they would get their rewards of the second dust boot, I think by May or June of that year. And then from that point on, once those. The customers from Kickstarter got theirs, then we could start selling to the masses, once we found the masses.

So we really didn't know what we were going to do after it because I was consulting for some large medical companies, developing products for them. But we were getting a lot of emails, say, hey, I want to buy this, but your Kickstarter is now closed. What are we gonna do? And then me and Jen talked about it and we're like, oh, why don't we just throw up a website and see where it goes? And we found wix and literally within two or three hours, the website was done and we were taking orders. So it was. We've been with WIX ever since, five years now.

Incredible. Incredible.

I just kept kind of going from there, growing and growing, and now that's

where we have this new website. So we had our first one, the Suck It Dust Boot. Through wix that we had. We still have it. It's there. And now it's the onefinity. So we'll sell the machine and all of the attachments on the one site. So this is our new and improved WIX site.

I'm not a web designer. I have very little coding experience and I got this website done in about a day. I think the hardest part was getting the videos and the content to put on there.

Ariel I think what I love about these stories is all three merchants did not know exactly where they're going. I mean, some of us, a lot of the times we're thinking like the more successful businesses are always run by this strategic plan and know exactly where they're aiming. And I think a lot of the times, especially in E commerce, sort of evolve as you go and as you find your audience and you better understand how to sell. To Sharon, for example, you know, her wigs are pricey, but still, I think through the way she does and conducts herself on Instagram, you definitely want to go and check out that wall of fame that she has there. I think it's great. And she's able to provide added value and people love it and will pay for that, even though I'm sure they can find, I wouldn't say similar products, but products that are alike in cheaper prices, but they would still go with what feels right for them. And I think as merchants figure out who their audience is and how to better tailor their products, they'll be able to better monetize also that audience.

I may also think, I think you have a very good point, Asaf, but I think it's also when you own your own business or in business for a while, it keeps changing. Like, you figure it out, but then there's a lull and then you have to re. Figure it out. I mean, again, this period has gotten all of us to refigure it out. Kind of having your own sales business, online business will never let you to kind of like sit and wait and be like, okay, I've. That's where I wanted to be. I've achieved it. It's just never going to be like it. Not because goals can't be achieved. It's just because the world changes and things that work at the moment won't work next month or, you know, are not relevant in a year or two. And I think that's very, very relevant to people trying to start off. There's no, there's not one route and there's not like a stopping point where like, okay, it's done now, Asaf, let's.

Thank you. Thank you so much, guys. And wait a second. ASAF is going to introduce us to a few options at Wix to get your first sales. Stay here and we'll come back to you in a second because we want to hear your thoughts about if you have tried those features and what was your experience like.

Right. So I'll go over three options that we're offering already available to merchants both new and ones who are looking to explore new sales opportunities and scale their businesses. And one that is coming, we're starting rollout in the next couple of days. We'll touch that one in a second. So the first one, especially if you never had a sale and this is your first time doing e commerce. So there's Facebook and Instagram Ads by Wix, in which you can create, run and track paid ads campaigns on Facebook and Instagram with Wix AI, which means that you have a pretty straightforward and easy to use setup wizard which will allow you to sort of go through the products and the audiences. And the AI. AI stands for artificial intelligence, means there's an algorithm that runs and finds, learns and finds what's best for your business, like your audience and your lowest cost per ad. Because you always want to optimize the return on investment. It does ongoing and automatic AB testing all the time and you can track all the sales. This is already available. I'll show you in a second where. And here a few screenshots. I won't go into the demo right now, but in essence, you set up your campaign and, and then as you run and you start seeing, you choose your audience and then you can start tracking and seeing the performance. So just a quick recap here, the pros here. It's a low risk, high potential for the return on investment and it's relatively easy. It's up and running in 10 minutes. You will need a Facebook business page, but that's also relatively simple to come up with on Facebook. I think our lowest spend starts at like $29 and we've seen some incredible returns on that. So I don't think it's a. I think it's definitely worth a shot. I'm not like it's software so you can't promise anyone, especially with ads, any return on investment. But the potential is definitely there. As I've said in the cons, it's not free. You have to pay for Facebook for the ads to run and you don't get as much control just because there's an algorithm in the driver's seat. So while many of us feel that they want to test and optimize, this tool will do it for you and will probably get you better results than if you had to do it yourself. But the feeling of control that we like as we go into campaign is not going to be there. I think it's best for starting out. So if you have your store and you have your products, definitely give it a shot. There are higher plans, but you can start out, as I said, for $29 a month and upgrade between the plans as you grow and where to find it, just go to your store dashboard. There's a tab there for marketing and SEO, and there's another one for Facebook ads, and the wizard will take you from there. It's also quite a fun process. So I strongly recommend this, especially for starters and for merchants who want to, who haven't gone into Facebook just yet and want to give it a try. And the potential is huge. Obviously Facebook, you have about 2 billion people, and in Facebook and Instagram in general, the intent is a little bit different. You have to. It's more about their interest rather than the intent, as opposed to Google where the intent is higher. So if I've already mentioned Google, we now have Google Shopping available for all of you by adscale. They're a promising startup and we know them well and like everything that they do, so we offer them to join our ecosystem. We now have hundreds of apps, but we're now focused on providing more and more apps for e commerce. So in essence, you register, choose your store category, and then you create your first campaign. You have to choose who you target and select which product you want to advertise and decide on budget. This is always true as you go into advertising and then you track the performance. So in essence, it's the same notion that you have an algorithm in the driver's seat so you don't have to do the optimization and you don't have to do the bidding. They will do it for you. A few screens. If you go there and start testing it out, you'll choose your category, create your first campaign, segment the age and the gender that you want to target to, and you'll have a few more things there that you want to customize before the algorithm gets going. Couple more screens. And just to sum up on Google Shopping, so the nice thing about Google is that the Google search is high intent, meaning that people who want to look for running shoes are actively searching for running shoes. And that's why it gets the Higher conversion rates. The cons here again are the pricing. You have to pay for media and in the higher tiers, also for the subscription, for adscane. And it's best for people who have never tried Google Shopping. So you can start out there and you can increase your budget, especially if you sort of hit your sweet spot and feel that, or you don't have to feel. You'll see it in the data that your sales are coming from. There you can increase the budget and really sell in high volumes. And I think that's a great thing for you as you test out new channels and new opportunities, is you want to know that you can really scale and double down on the investment there if you find any gold signs. So you can double down on that. Where to find it. So this one is not a native WIX feature. You have to go to the WIX app market. There's a ton of great applications there that you can add and improve everything from fulfillment to sales channels. So go to the WIX app market and look for Google Shopping or adscale and it will be there. Lastly, I want to speak a little bit on ebay shops. So Sharon, thanks for starting the conversation on ebay. So definitely ebay is a great sales channel that we're expanding to and integrating into your WIX dashboard. And now you can expand your reach by selling your products on one of the biggest online marketplaces. You sort of have to list the products to ebay directly from wix. So there's a wizard that takes you through it, set the prices, and then you publish on ebay. And you manage your entire catalog and inventory from your dashboard on wix. This is currently in beta and we've seen some fantastic results. So a few screens. So as you get there, you already feel you'll know that you're in the right spot. And this is how it looks on ebay. So it's just like any other listing. And if you guys ever listed something on ebay, you know that today it takes a lot of time and they require a lot of details. And so it's great to have the wizard facilitated for you. And so the pros here, you can obviously promote your business to ebay shoppers. There's a lot of them and they're looking for all kinds of products. So it's definitely worth testing. And it will be available from certain plans in wix, but there's no additional cost here. One of the cons that ebay has is a strict onboarding process. So it might take a few days to Figure it out by the time they give you the green light. Ebay is known to be strict on that, so be patient here. I think it's great for merchants who are expanding into multi channel sales. One thing you do have to keep in mind that ebay has its own return policy and refunds. So bear in mind that ebay is very strong. Like if it comes to ruling it, they will most likely rule in favor of the shopper. I think it's generally good for the shopping experience, but as merchants take it into mind. But you are exposed to a gigantic marketplace, so definitely try and expand. The risk here is very low as there's no additional cost here and where to find it. So this is coming, as I said, really, really soon. We'll start rolling it out in the next couple of days and probably in two to three weeks it'll be open for everyone. So definitely, as I've said on each of them, but in ebay specifically, as the Orient is already there. So it's an excellent way for you to test out sales channels. And I think, Ariel, that's about it for the tools that we're offering. So we have Facebook and Instagram ads, Google shopping and eBay Shop 2 are available. And ebay, we're rolling it out starting from tomorrow, so the next few days you'll probably see it. And definitely in the next two to three weeks it'll be open for everyone. And we're always happy to hear feedback and success stories or if there's any glitches. It's important for us to fix everything. I think that's it for me for now, Ariel. Maybe we'll open it up for Q&As.

Yes, and before I do that, I would like to add that we have had two webinars only about Facebook ads. So please free either on our Facebook. I'm sorry on our YouTube channel. Wix. YouTube channel. Find those if you're interested or go to our E Commerce school WIX Ecommerce school page and all the webinars are there so feel free. We also have WIX support with knowledge based articles and some more resources, the blog and some other resources that can help you with Facebook ads because this is a great product and we are seeing merchants with beautiful results that are using Facebook ads by wix. So feel free to browse and learn more. So before we go back. Yes, thank you Assaf. I have a few more questions to our super cool merchants here. One is from the audience who just asked. This is for Sharon actually because you've mentioned you talked about Facebook groups, and these are usually. A lot of times, these are closed groups. How do you get into those? Like, how do you. How are you able to utilize those?

So I would usually reach out to the admin and tell them, like, listen, I have a product that could help your, you know, your clientele. And they're not really interested in those who are just trying to pitch in anything. You know, when you're looking at a. If you're talking about a group that has hair loss and I'm selling a wig, something that'd be a solution to their hair loss, you know, they're gonna. They, you know, they're usually gonna be. They're gonna want you in there, especially if you offer them some sort of, you know, I personally don't, but I know a lot of people do offer some sort of, you know, monetary compensation for it, too. And I don't really post ads in there, but, you know, once, you know, if I would send a prod, like, I know I'm in one of these groups for moms who have hair loss, you know, post pregnancy. So I'm in one of those groups, and I. She's one of the people that I actually gave a free product to because she was suffering from hair loss post pregnancy and like, 20,000 women. So I think something like that would give me a lot of sales. So, you know, something. Something like that. I could actually join into that group because it's not really. It's closed, but I can, you know, I'm a mom, too, and I, you know, even if I didn't suffer through hair loss like that, I'm able to join that kind of group. But, you know, so not. Not every group you can go into. Obviously, I'm not personally into. I'm not in the group. So for, like, weight loss surgeries, I never had that. I hadn't really tried getting into those. But there's a lot of different kind of groups that I, you know, I am in that, you know, people. Because not only are these admins, these admins are also looking to give their viewers something. You know, it's not always about, you know, me trying to pitch something for myself. So they want to give content, too. Also, what I do is get, you know, YouTube. YouTube reviews are huge for me as well. Instagram influencers, you don't even need to work with the humongous Instagram influencers that want like $20,000 a post. Some. Some of them who only have like 5,000 to 20,000 followers are also good enough to just get you started. So I, you know, I usually work with the more lower ones and then I haven't worked with any of them that have like, you know, a million followers because they usually want a lot more money. So yeah, that's pretty much.

That's how we do it too, right? I mean we, we find out who the people are running the forums and we reach out to them and ask them if they want to try out our products. Almost always they say yes, they really have nothing to lose and they try it out and you know, we've been lucky. Most of them have liked it and they share our product on their forums and that's really how we've made most of our sales, through giving product away to influencers and letting them tell the world.

Sometimes it's not only about comping the group admin or the group owner. As long as you're willing to offer something to everyone in that group, let's say a 10% off or a coupon or a certain line that's just for them. You know, people have a good promotion. Sharon said that before. And also they like exclusivity. So if you want to offer this or that, it's just for that group and you can start local at some point. I had a girl here who was like, oh, but why aren't we selling in northwest London? Because whoever thought of starting northwest London specifically, but it's a huge community. I am Israeli. It's a huge Jewish community. You can approach things in different ways. Just because my product isn't Jacob doesn't mean, you know, the fact that I'm Jewish can't help, you know, find people that wear jewelry. So you can approach things different way. And sometimes starting with something small that you feel comfortable in might get you that first sale that you were talking about before. Yeah.

So when we just launched our cnc, we had a lot of influencers actually reach out to us to see if they could get one and try it out. Obviously they're expensive so we can't just give out hundreds of these machines. So we actually have a sign up list now on our website for WIX forms. Wix forms. So we're just compiling a list for the next round of product to beta tests.

Super interesting. Hila, we've talked before and you mentioned that you run promotions. A lot of times this helps sales. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Like how do you decide what type of promotions to run?

Yeah, I mean, because we're kind of in fashion or fashion accessories. Even though our stuff is not very kind of. We're not, you know, top shop or anything. We're not seasonal. But we still do have like two seasons a year. So we run promotions kind of parallel to the seasons of the year when all the shops are doing the sales. We try to promote our own sales and actually kind of differentiate ourselves saying, like, we're not, you know, big stores, we're not the high street stores, but we, you know, we're still in the game. I do different things. I mean, it really does depend on what I have in stock and what I feel like at that moment. It could be a 10% on something. It could be buy to get a pair of earrings. I also use information that I now have in my contacts. If someone has bought once or twice, I usually add a pair of earrings to the third order. Just, you know, say, oh, thank you for returning. Throughout this Covid situation. I've run a lot of promotions. I kind of take it took it as an opportunity to do a studio cleanup and talk about it a lot. Talked about. I mean, I did kind of a Marie Kondo thing in the house a while back ago, and I kind of bring it into the studio because I have a lot of reps. I have a lot of stuff lying around. And I took the time and took pictures of everything that I had lying in the studio and did sample sales about 2amonth, which generated quite a lot of sales. And I wrote very genuinely saying I can get out of the house. This is what I can do. You're looking for a gift you want to send someone you love, something you want to look pretty. Just what I was feeling and trying to kind of communicate that to the people that were going through the same stuff as I was. I think people remember you when you do that. Like people remember you when you add a pair of earrings or when you. I always write a handmaiden and hunt handwritten note in each retail order that I send out singles.

You.

I even use black envelopes because I think then you stand out in the post. So I think all these really small things make a difference. And even when I do wholesale, I do that. I always add gift to the buyer because worst case, she's going to sell it, and if not, she's going to wear it, and then the people in the shop are going to buy it. So I think you always need to think about that extra, extra thing. And yeah, I think people do respond very well to promotion. People have a deal and my business is wholesale, so I have quite a big margin that I can work with. On retail. But there's different ways to do. I mean, in Wix specifically, you can just, you can do it on a specific collection or on a specific kind of style. So I try to change it around so that also for my, the people that are getting my newsletters, they don't feel like it's the same deal every time. Mix it up.

I really love Hila. I really love how you approach the shopping experience and like the, even the unboxing experience, like when you get a handwritten note, you're far more likely to remember that than any generic printed receipt or any other inventory or whatever you find in those boxes. So I really like your approach here. But let's talk for a second about COVID You mentioned it. I think I love. One thing I love about merchants is how they always make something happen. And we hear it from your answers. Like you always look for another angle to do to get better solutions to sell more. But I think Covid is something that we have never experienced before, to say the least. So you mentioned a little bit, Hilla, and how this affected you, Jen, how has this been, how has it been for you guys?

It's certainly brought on challenges in our particular business. The biggest challenge has been the logistics, just bringing in the raw material so that we can manufacture the machines. You know, we're lucky. You know, a lot of the, some of the material we have local suppliers at metal shops, so that's definitely helpful. But there's other, other things that they come from other countries. And so we really have to

really

take care in figuring out how long it's going to take to bring it

into stuff that used to take two or three days to get here now takes two or three weeks.

Yeah.

So we have to manage that very closely.

But you know, in terms of sales, Covid hasn't, I'm knocking on wood here. It hasn't really affected.

Yeah.

The purchasing of them because, you know, our machines, they're actually for the hobby CNC market. So these are things that, you know, people make. A lot of people make clocks, really beautiful clocks or signs, wooden signs and that sort of thing. So the, the CNC machines are actually being used to make money. So, you know, in the future you might actually see somebody that has purchased the CNC machine from our WIX site will have their own WIX account to sell their beautiful signs that they've made on our product. So, you know, the people that are buying, they are buying because, you know, they could be bored or they're trying to make a Little bit of extra money because they were laid off at their job. And, you know, this is something that they could take with them. So Covid hasn't affected us in ways that it's affected some, but definitely, you know, Covid has just affected everything.

So I have a question there from the audience, Jen and Mark, like, what. What website template did you use for the Paralyx scroll? Do you remember that?

Even the headphone template,

I think it's called Technologies. It's in the technology.

Stereo something. Headphones.

It was headphones. There was headphones. They were selling headphones in it.

Very cool. Yeah. So another question that we get a lot even in this, like, reading those comments now and I'm seeing, like, how do you drive? Like, once you get the traffic to your website, how do you turn them into sales, convert them for those users? If any of you wants to answer them.

I mentioned it in, like, in the offline. I mean, it depends on where the people come from. I mean, people that come from Instagram, it could be very random scrollers. They saw something on my feed. They like, they clicked one of the, you know, the products or something. And that might be a longer shot. If people have looked for my product and got into the website, there's more likely they'll actually sell. Sorry, buy. But I think there are actually quite a lot of new features that I've been using to generate that sale. First of all, everything shows up on my cell phone, which is not very good for your offline life. But I do see who's on my website and when and what page they're on. And I answer. In the last few months, it's been me, but before it was my studio manager. We answer our chats live. That didn't really make a difference, especially in my wholesale in my B2B website. Because, yeah, you don't always know exactly and you're not sure about whatever the proportions or this or that. People like asking a question. They like knowing that there's someone on the other side. I found that to be very effective. People that want to buy a present and want like a customized situation. So having that on. I use the app a lot and I feel like that helped me kind of like do things more on routes sometimes in very unconventional places. I've been starting to use the abandoned card feature quite recently, I think a couple months ago. I want to say. Yeah, it hasn't been around long, but it has. It works. I mean, you see that someone is abandoned and, you know, the email went out and it's A very simple thing to set up automatic emails, just offering them, you know, if they've forgotten. I know that it works on me and that's kind of my. It's a very silly filter. But I know that if something works on me then I'm willing to try it. So yeah, there's a lot of tools to help with that.

Right. So abandoned Cardam. Just adding to your point that it's under custom.

It's under.

So go into your dashboard and under. Okay, I'm blanking, sorry.

Below the orders, I think.

Yes. Right. So it's there and you can easily adjust it to your needs and we see that it does grow your sales.

And I think in general, everything that has to do with the automated emails is crucial. Giving 10% to whoever signs up, like all the thanking people for their purchase, it works. It keeps you in their inbox. It's one more thing that they get to look at. It's another opportunity to put another image that presents a different product than what they've bought. So it's definitely something. And on that same note, I think, I mean Instagram, Facebook and all that is important but when again, each newsletter tells a bit of a different story. I have a big collection so I can do something else each time but you know, they'll see something they haven't seen in a different angle or whatnot and. Or they've been debating for a while and that third newsletter will make them know, close the deal. So that's crucial.

Thanks, Arielle. And we also, we also about how to build trust in the process because if you're driving traffic but not sales, so you're either catering to the wrong audience or you don't build enough trust with them. So you're welcome obviously to go to the E commerce school and see some of the things we mentioned there. Sharon, you were about to say something and I borrowed it.

Yeah, I wanted to say two tips that I thought would be helpful. If you're getting the visitors to your site, I think it would be really helpful to turn on the live. The chat. I personally don't use it just because I do constantly always have visitors on my website. You know, all day, all night. I ship out, I'm worldwide so I ship out all over the world. So there's always constantly at least 20 people on my website at a given time. When I'm adding new pieces on my website, I get to tell that something gets to over 100. And that's when my website actually starts glitching a little bit. When I'M adding new pieces. But so one thing I would say is to activate your live chat, you know, someone's already lurking on your website and they're online and they're viewing. You can kind of start a conversation like sales pitch out to them. You know, you can be like, hi, how are you? Can I help with anything? If they see that they're speaking to a live person, it's like as if they're getting an in store shopping experience. Again, something that I've done, but I can imagine it being helpful and for myself for what I do to get a lot more visitors and turn into sales is adding new pieces pretty often. So I know on the days that I add new inventory, like something brand new is the day that I'll have sales for my older pieces because people are already shopping, you know, they're coming back and they see more. So I advertise on my Instagram page. I put my stories when I'm adding new pieces or whatever. They see they have new pieces and bring them to my website to check out those new pieces. And while they're on my website they can go back into older pieces they may have wanted in the past but they never really, they never checked out on it. So those are the two things that I think could help. If you're getting the visitors but not getting actual sales about the chat, you

can set up hours in which you're available and not available. So my chat is available when I know I'm awake ish And I know I can accommodate. Otherwise it's like something that it's not like it just goes into my email. And also you can set up certain things that are said in the minute that they. Let's say someone says or on the website for this and that time you can say hello, blah blah and you can make it less kind of Amazon Y. Like ours is quite like funny. We like a joke something you can make sure that the person that's on the website for like 10 minutes get something prompted. So it's highly customized, it's quite nice. And I do agree about the new things and you were asking about promotions before so sometimes what I do is if I put something new, I'll put something else on promotion. So they'll come because they like the new thing but they'll end up buying whatever is on promotion that I want to get rid of. So again trying to like sell.

Yeah, I agree. I don't even think you need to run like a site wide sale. Especially during COVID Right now my main issue is that my sales actually went up during Coronavirus. My sales, there was a slower period of when I didn't have sales. I think people were very scared of what was going to happen in the very beginning, in March and April, people didn't know when this would end. And I think now that things are starting to open, and especially in the US all the government stimulus checks started coming out and unemployment checks started coming out. People were actually buying more. But my issue is that my production is in China and they're still on some crazy lockdown. I don't know what exactly is going on.