MBA993 Special Guest Lesson: Exactly How To Start An Online Store with Katie Swett

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Thanks. Thanks for having me.

Great. I know that a lot of people, when they think about starting an online business, they think about starting a online store. I know. That was the first thing I thought of when I started and one of my first online businesses was an online store, an e commerce store. When it comes to thinking about all this, how do you know you're ready to sell online?

Yeah, I think for most of our customers, it usually starts with an idea that they have based on a skill or a passion that they've developed over years and they want to get that out into the world. Actually see most of our customers start offline going to those farmers markets or craft fairs and kind of getting feedback from real people in the world.

I love that. I know for myself. You know, when I started my online store, I was selling offline as well. At the start, I was going to conventions and trade shows and then I was like, I need to scale this thing somehow. So an online store is a great next step. So speaking about steps, what is the first step when it comes to starting an online store? Do I need to choose a domain name? What's your best advice when it comes to that?

I think people get a little caught up with the domain name piece. It's not really that important when you're getting started. So I think the first thing you want to do is really establish what do you want to sell online and make that offering really simple. Make sure it's validated offline with those people you're meeting at craft fairs and farmers markets. And spend a lot of time and energy investing in that one product and how you're displaying it to the world. That's much more important than the domain name, which you can change at any point in the future. So even a lot of website builders and e commerce stores out there actually let you just get a free sub domain so you can get up and running really quickly and start sending it around to friends and family to get feedback.

Thank you so much for mentioning how important idea validation is, because we talk about this all the time on the show in our courses and things like that, because if you don't have something that people actually want to buy, you're going to be in big trouble. So idea validation is so important. So thanks so much for mentioning that. Let's talk about some of the tips when it comes to design. You know, design is important. You know, the way you look, the way you display yourself is important. What are some tips that you can give us when it comes to designing your store? How could you do that?

Yeah, I think, you know, the homepage of your website is really your first impression. And in the tech industry we kind of call it above the fold, right. So what you see before you start scrolling, and so you want to make sure that that above the fold kind of before you start scrolling experience is really simple to the point. And so there's a few things that you can do to really make that first impression. Gold. One is to have kind of a very simple headline and cta. So you want to explain what your product does and kind of how emotionally it makes people feel in a really succinct way. A lot of people try to cram a lot of text up there, and what we know from research is that no one really reads more than a couple words up there and they start looking at pictures. So that kind of brings me into the next piece, which is to have a really kind of beautiful, immersive photo that feels true to who you are as a brand. I think a lot of people try to just go grab any stock photo, but it doesn't necessarily feel authentic to that small business. So I think investing in kind of a good photo that you can put up there that speaks really authentically to the product that you're selling, but also kind of sells that vision that your store is hoping to bring to people's lives.

That's so good. I mean, I know the importance of photos, especially, like, you don't have to have tons of photos, but as long as the ones you have are authentic like you mentioned, I love that. And I know that Wheelie is also great for collecting email addresses as well. Opt ins. I remember I completely neglected this in my first couple years online and completely regret it because you miss out on so many opportunities to build relationships with potential customers. Yeah. So let's talk about products. You know, this is kind of what everybody thinks about when they talk about like starting. Starting to sell things online. How do I add products to my store? What if I have multiple colors or sizes of the same product?

Absolutely, yeah. Most solutions make it pretty easy these days to add products to your online store. I think when you look though, at the number of products that you're selling, that will help you determine if you should use variants which are colors as a dropdown and sizes as a dropdown, or if you should really highlight the different colors as their own products. If you looked at a company that only had three products, they probably would make three individual products on their storefront to make, you know, feel a little bit more full as a store. But if you had a thousand products in your storefront, you'd probably start to make some of those variants small, medium, large colors kind of hidden underneath the larger groupings. So I would say understand kind of how many products you're selling and are intending to sell and start to think about how you can group those in ways that someone that's visiting your site will find what they want to find, but also be able to kind of experience all that you have to offer.

Now, earlier you mentioned photography and how important photography is for your website. Obviously this is important for your products as well. So what are some things you can kind of highlight or things that are important? When it comes to my product images.

I would say the first thing would be to make sure you have really clear, high quality photos at multiple angles. So you want to have large photos. You can always compress them down to be smaller, to load on mobile devices or something else, but you really can't make those photos bigger. So use the best camera that you have access to or a friend of yours has access to to get those photos. We often see people starting out with their iPhone, which works especially with the newer iPhones coming out, have really, really great cameras. But if you can borrow that, you know, DSLR camera from a friend, it's always a good starting point.

Yeah, that's some really good advice. I remember one of the things I learned really quickly is that, you know, the phone, like your phone camera, is actually really good, especially if you have great lighting, even if it's just daylight. And it really makes a big difference in terms of the way the photo comes out. I want to talk a little bit about what a lot of people are thinking about right now. And it's money. You know, the reason why they're starting a business is to make money. And so let's talk about how do you actually get the money that you charge your customers? How is that done? With my online store, yeah.

So your online store has kind of a payment processor that you can use, and there's different choices that you can make for which payment processor. Normally, it's a combination of a transaction fee and kind of the timing that those funds are actually distributed into your bank account. So basically, the customer that's buying from your store puts their credit card down, the payment processor, collects that payment, and then after. After a certain number of days, usually two to seven, those funds will be transferred into your bank account for you to have. Usually, you consider a few things when trying to decide on a payment processor. One is, which is the fastest for you to get those funds back into your account? Second, what is the cheapest? So looking at those transaction fees, it might not be important up front when you're first starting, but kind of as you scale, that can become pretty substantial. And the third would be what countries do they serve? Really understanding if you're going international or domestic can really help you choose one of those payment processors.

Awesome. So we got our store together. We've really designed a great store. We got our products up there. We know how to collect money from our customers. They're buying our products. How do we get our products to them? Now let's talk about shipping. This is something that was really intimidating for me when I got started with my online store back in the day. What are some of the options I have when it comes to shipping my products to my customers?

Yeah, shipping is so important and usually an afterthought for someone that's kind of starting an online business because it's a good problem to have. Right? You have someone that bought your product, and now you're trying to get it in their hands. So I think there are some tools out there. Weebly's partnered with a company called Shippo, and they've made it super easy for you to integrate all of the shipping options that one would need right into the platform. And they give you discounts actually on the labels that you're buying, which kind of similar to the payment processors, can really add up over time when you get those discounts. So I think there's a couple things, two main ones to think about with shipping. One is packaging, which people often forget about, and how do you kind of make that box that you put your product in and kind of the container, something that's special for your customer to open and also affordable for you to produce at scale. And then the second is how can you create some sort of offering that your customers, when they're checking out, actually are encouraged to buy your product because the shipping isn't too high. It's often hard for customers that are small to compete with the Amazons of the world.

Well, I'm glad that you mentioned Amazon because I wanted to ask kind of a tough question. I know a lot of people think about this when they start an online store. There's all these big marketplaces like Amazon that they can sell their stuff on, their products on. Why not just sell on Amazon? Why should I start my own online store and design it and all that kind of stuff? What's the advantage of doing that?

Well, I'm not anti Amazon or big marketplaces. I think they can be a really good place to get started and to kind of prove out some demand. I mean, they have millions of people visiting those sites and it definitely can help you get a large customer base right from the beginning. What we do see is normally after a year or so, the merchants or the store owners really want to control that brand more and they want to have the relationship with the customer that they are building this product for. And the market marketplaces really don't allow for you to kind of have that personal relationship with your customers. And so one, you lose a good percentage of your kind of margin, and two, you really don't get to connect with that customer at the end of the day and help them understand how to either use your product better or kind of sell more to them as you increase your product line. So most people tend to try to open up their own store and kind of make sure that their brand story is brought out in that store and allow them to keep relationships with those customers, which is really important at the end of the day.

Yeah, that's super key. And I mentioned this in the past in a few episodes actually ago, about how your website, when you have an online business, is your asset, really. And a lot of people don't understand there's a huge business behind people Buying and selling online businesses. And part of that package is your website, and that's part of the asset that you're selling. So if one day down the line you want to sell your business or you want to change your business or something like that, having a website is going to be a huge piece of value, piece of real estate that will be incorporated in selling your actual business. So I'm glad that you mentioned that. So let's talk about marketing. One of the things that people really hate is being ignored when they get started. They're unknown. They want to get new customers. What kind of things that. What kind of things that you could do to start getting some new customers? Getting discovered by people that have never heard of you?

Yeah, it's the first thing we hear from every customer that publishes a website. Right. Is what's next? How do people find me? It's less that they're being ignored and I think more that no one knows they exist. I think that is where some of the marketplaces kind of get their power at the beginning, which is you can exist there, you can exist on Etsy, but Etsy can change their algorithms any day and you're less and less kind of valuable. So marketing for your own store is really important. And I think you touched on it at the beginning, which is collecting those email addresses. I like to liken it to. If you owned a brick and mortar store and you didn't say hello to someone that came into your store, it would be really rude. If someone comes to your online store, you want to say hello to them and you want to let them sign up in some way to find out more if they're interested too. So that can really pay dividends down the road. So putting some sort of lead capture with an incentive that says 10% off for your first purchase right at the front door can really help you convert customers. Not just that day, but over the course of three, four years, because you'll have that person's email address and you can really let them know when new things come out. And it takes a couple of brand touch points for someone to actually convert to be a customer. Especially in this world of advertising and brands are everywhere. Getting one of those lead capture forms early and allowing you to kind of collect those customers that could be interested in hearing from you is really, I think, the first step.

I love that because I'm a big believer in email marketing. I think it trumps social media, you know, a million times. Because with email you have to deal with it like you have to either read it, archive it, do something with it. You can't just ignore your email. I think now more than ever, our inbox has become sacred. So if you have access to somebody's inbox, it's a huge deal. So I love the fact that you guys are big on email marketing, so you got some customers now, but, you know, I feel like it's even more important to keep the customers you have or have repeat customers, get the customers that have already bought from you that you've already worked so hard to get to buy again. So how can I get repeat customers with my online store?

Absolutely. I think on average, it costs a company six times more to acquire a new customer than it does to lose that customer in the first place. And so trying to keep the customers you have, keep them happy, is really something that is in your best interest from a business perspective and also really brings you a lot of joy to see that person that bought with you year one buying again every quarter, every year. So one of the tools that we like to kind of talk about at Weebly is personalization. And a lot of marketing is letting you make the emails that you're sending out or even the ads that you're kind of pushing out there much more personal. Right. So setting up some things that really work for you without you having to do the work, which we call automations, email automations, where you can send your customers a happy birthday email or you can identify a certain segment of your customers that are VIP. So maybe they are the top 30% of purchasers and send them some sort of incentive for thanking them for being a part of your kind of brand's family. Those are a lot of the things we see working really, really well is leveraging this we know who our customers are concept by bringing in these personalized marketing tools into our platform and making them really, really easy for you to just turn on and let work for you.

That's some pretty nifty tools there. I love the fact that you can segment and really filter for those you want to really target. I love that we know that it's more than just the products we buy for more than just the products we buy because of the experience. I think about anything I bought online in the past, Whether it's from apple.com or from Zappos, really, we love to have a great experience and a lot of that experience is customer support. So when it comes to starting your online store, I know customer support is so important. Are there any tips that you can give us? You can kind of shed some light on when it comes to having great customer support for my store.

Yeah, there's a lot of tools out there that can help you do this in a way that never used to be something that existed. So historically there was a contact flow on your website, which is definitely a good thing to still have kind of to catch anyone that is on your site that needs help. But having some sort of widget on your website that allows someone that's struggling or has a question with sizing to reach out to you and ask that question is really, really something that we've found highly effective. Usually there's tools like Facebook messenger or Weebly has a tool that's in our app center called SimpleChat where you can integrate it on your website pretty easily. And then as soon as a customer has a question and types it in, it just comes in through your phone via a text or messenger as an application. It gives you that freedom from your computer where the merchant doesn't have to be sitting behind their computer all day just answering people's questions. But if someone does come to your store and they're about to make a really critical purchasing decision and they can ask you, hey, is this. Is small really a true small or does it run large? That can really help, especially at the beginning when you don't have a large number of product reviews like Nike or some large brand that would have a good amount of. Is this true to size? It can help kind of alleviate some of those early questions that a customer might have.

I love that because it really kind of simulates the real life experience of going into a physical store. You know, you would ask those questions when you're making a purchase and those are really buying questions. And people are asking those questions. They're just looking for a reason to buy. They're refining out some more information so they can actually purchase the products they're looking at. So I love that. So we talked about a lot today. We talked about design, we talked about how to get our products up and running and up on our store. We talked about photography, we talked about how to get our money and shipping and all sorted and all that stuff. I know that some of the listeners that are listening today might be thinking, okay, wow, that's a lot of stuff. How much time is this all going to take for me to open for business?

It is a tricky question and there's a lot of solutions out there that are kind of pitching be a millionaire in ten days type concept.

Nine days. Nine days, Katie, not ten, sorry, nine days.

Our priority is always to really help customers build real businesses that sell real products to real people. So I'm not a big fan of the nine day business plan, but I think it can be as fast or as slow as you really want, depending on how you invest in it. It could be something where you say let's put up a storefront, let's validate this product and make sure we really, really have good product market fit before we expand this out and start doing a ton of paid acquisition. Or you could say we're going to throw a couple thousand dollars in ads, ads at this product and we're just going to go for it and swing for the fences. I think the tools are there for you to do either of those. My preference is always because most people have a full time job and this starts out as a side hustle to get that product market fit. Find the product and the features that you kind of want to sell to your customers, start hearing what they have to say and adapt. The great thing about websites and online stores these days is that you can change things whenever you want and by yourself without having to have a developer or a designer come in. So, tricky question, you can get up and live in 10 minutes or it could be a couple months to a year process where you're really getting feedback and iterating until you're ready to really kind of dive in.

I think that's a solid piece of advice that you're offering. One of the things I always mention is you should strive to have slow, steady growth because if you grow slowly at the start, you don't have that big of an audience. If you make a few mistakes, it's not super embarrassing. You haven't lost thousands of customers. If you blow up with all these customers at the start and then you make a mistake or something goes wrong, or you just don't deliver because you're just learning the ropes somehow. Maybe your inventory is low or something like that. You know, it's good to kind of go slow so you can learn as you grow and then you can refine as you grow and as you build that customer base. So I love that advice.

Nailing that end to end experience, you know, that is going to impress your customers is really hard. You know, just from the time that they purchase and the emails that they receive from you all the way to the time that they open that box, you want to get that right and you want to be kind of the brand that can nail that and that that doesn't come overnight, right?

Totally, totally. I love that. So this is like the first time we've ever done, you know, an episode like this. It's the first time we've actually had, you know, a sponsor that has supported our show in the past to come and bring on an expert and talk about a topic, you know, and just full disclosure now. I've used Weebly in the past. I still use Weebly for my own site. I think it's a great platform, but there's so many options out there, you know, how is Weebly different from other platforms? How will it help me be more successful as an entrepreneur and bring success to my online store?

Yeah, absolutely. Well, we're pleasantly surprised to hear that you use Weebly and we love to hear real stories of real people that are doing amazing things out in the world. So thank you. I would say that the kind of the answer to why to use Weebly is that we try to solve our customers problems in one integrated product. A lot of services are platforms out there where they require you to go, use a lot of third parties, so third party website themes, third party checkouts. And so we try to make Weebly the one stop shop for you where you can come in and you can get everything from a domain name to your hosting to your website, to your email marketing, to your ad campaigns, to your insights and with your data. And by doing that, it really allows someone to come in, not only save a lot of money, but save a lot of time trying to figure out how to integrate all these different pieces together into one platform. So we really try to offer kind of the one stop shop where you can come. And even recently we've launched a professional photography offering. So we're really trying to help those customers that come in the door get over all of those hurdles as quickly and easily as they possibly can.

That's awesome. I think that that kind of eases the whole challenge of starting that online store of having all those applications, all those utilities, all the services at their disposal when they get started. So it's kind of like I got no excuse, I gotta, I just gotta get started, get my site out there, get my products out there, even if I'm just starting with a few products. So, you know, I always talk about this, you know, those who have listened to the show, I mean, we're almost at a thousand episodes actually, you know, this is episode what, 993 or something. So, you know, I've been preaching this forever and I love to hear from somebody who's been in the trenches working with people, building their stores, just get started. And there's so many great tools out there with Weebly to kind of just get you up and running. So I love the fact that Weebly offers all these great applications that go along with it. So, Katie, thank you so much for being with us today. You've added incredible amount of value. It's been great to have you.

Absolutely. It's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

I just want to make a quick reminder for everybody. If you want to get started right now with Weebly, you could save 15% off with your online store. Just go to weebly.com mba that's weebly. W e-e b l y.com mba 15% off is pretty cool to get started when you get started with Weebly. So you'll love it when you get started. And I love Weebly's whole mantra of not just building a beautiful website, but building a successful business. You know, that's really your ultimate goal. You know, building a beautiful website really doesn't pay the bills. You know, what pays the bills is having people love your products and services and the whole experience. And I love that you guys make it your priority to make sure people are successful. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With usaa, you can bundle your auto and home and and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a'@usaa.com bundle restrictions apply.

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What a fantastic episode with Katie Sweat from Weebly. Thanks again for all your insights, all your value. Like I promised, we made sure that we kept it valuable. We kept tactical and I hope the questions I asked really got you thinking and got you going to get started. It was also a fun episode for us because we've never done this type of format before. It's an experiment. All our other lessons will be lesson based. But if you loved this format, if you want to see more of this, let me know. Email me@omar mba.net I'd love to hear your feedback. Okay, one last reminder. If you want to get started with weebly and save 15% off, just go to weebly.com mba that's w e e e b l y.com mba thank you so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. If you love this show. Let us know in an iTunes rating and review. We read every single review every single day. It lets us know what you love about the show, lets us know what to focus on. And hey, it motivates me to keep publishing new episodes. That's it for me today. But before I go, I want to leave you with this. We covered a lot in today's episode. There's a lot to do when you open an online store, and in a lot of ways, it's not much different from opening a physical store. So my advice to you is break it down into to do tasks. We talked about all the things from designing your website, from photography, from, you know, putting your product images up, from setting up your billing and your shipping and all that stuff, as well as your customer service. Put a deadline against every single task and get to work. Step by step, you're going to build your online store and you will open for business. But if you don't have the steps in front of you, if you don't have these deadlines, you know, in front of you, where you have to hit, then it's just going to be really nebulous and it's just going to be all in your head. Put yourself on task and get it done. Open that store and make it happen. All right, thank you so much for listening. I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. Until then, take care. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With usaa, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a'@usaa.com bundle restrict.