Trevor Ginn - How to Grow Your eCommerce Business: The Essential Guide to Building a Successful Multi-Channel Online Business with Google, Shopify, eBay, Amazon & Facebook

First published in 2022

Trevor Ginn, 2022

All right reserved.

Vendlab Publishing

2 Spring Valley Business Centre, Porters Wood

St Albans, AL3 6PD, UK

www.vendlab.com/ecommerce-book

hello@vendlab.com

Paperback ISBN 978-1-7391579-0-6

eBook ISBN 978-1-7391579-2-0

FOREWORD

B uilding a successful eCommerce business is challenging. Low barriers to entry mean that competition is fierce and entrepreneurs must work hard and innovate to stay ahead of the pack. There is massive competition on the major marketing channels and a race to the bottom in terms of margins.

To succeed, retail entrepreneurs need to use the entire arsenal of tools at their disposal, be that online marketplaces, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media or email marketing. However, many businesses hold themselves back by sticking to what they know. For example, only 15% of retailers in the UK sell cross-border. These sellers are missing a massive opportunity as over 20% of trade is international on platforms such as eBay.

This book will show you all the techniques and know-how needed to grow your online business to a multi-million turnover.

I will teach you how to turn your niche eCommerce store into a multi-channel business with customers worldwide.

In doing this, I draw on my 15 years of hard-won, hands-on experience of running a successful online retailing business and helping other companies grow as a consultant.

This book has eleven chapters, each with a different eCommerce topic area. Chapters 1 and 2 deal with the nitty-gritty of running an eCommerce business. Chapters 3 to 10 look at the online sales channels and techniques you should be using to grow your business. These chapters cover selling via marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, promoting your business on Google and Facebook and encouraging return customers through email and affiliate marketing.

About Me

My name is Trevor Ginn and I am the founder of Hello Baby, an online retailer based in the UK focusing on the preschool space.

I built Hello Baby from scratch to a turnover of 5m/year with no external funding. It has been hard work but rewarding!

I also run Vendlab.com, an eCommerce consultancy specialising in helping eCommerce businesses grow through multi-channel eCommerce.

Along the way, I have picked up a wealth of knowledge about eCommerce and how to build a small business. In this book, I have tried to distil all I have learned on my journey to help you grow your online business.

Stay in Touch

It is hard and sometimes lonely running your own business. With this in mind, I have launched a Facebook group so that readers of this book can connect:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/vendlab

If you require more help on the topics in this book, check out my online courses:

https://vendlab.com/ecommerce-courses/

I also host the eCommerce Odyssey podcast on all things eCommerce

https://vendlab.com/podcasts/

And a Youtube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/VendlabeCommerceSchool

Trevor Ginn

St Albans, UK. 2022

Part I:

THE BUSINESS OF eCOMMERCE

B uilding an eCommerce business requires a breadth of skills. Firstly, you must be an expert at running a physical business, which means managing pricing, stock and selecting products that people want to buy. Secondly, you must also be on top of a constantly growing array of platforms and techniques for driving traffic and converting browsers into customers. The variety of skills required makes eCommerce exciting, but it also makes it hard to get right.

In Chapters 1 and 2, we look at how to win at the business of eCommerce. In Chapter 1, we take a birds eye view of the strategies eCommerce businesses use to succeed. Then, in Chapter 2, we look at measuring and understanding your business performance.

Chapter 1: Paths to growth

Fundamentally there are only three ways in which companies (including eCommerce businesses) grow:

1. Attract new customers

2. Improve average order value

3. Drive repeat purchases

Chapter 1 looks at strategies for improving performance in each area and discusses how eCommerce businesses use them to grow their business. The platforms and techniques discussed will be covered in more detail in Parts 2 and 3 of this book.

Chapter 2: Improving business performance

The famous scientist Lord Kelvin once said, If you cannot measure it, you cannot control it. Without monitoring your business performance, you will not know where you are heading. In Chapter 2, we look at how to measure the performance of your online business. We also look at fundamental metrics like margin and product sell-through rate and ask how these can be improved through smarter ordering and inventory management.

1:

Paths to growth

S etting up an eCommerce business has never been easier. Services like Shopify providing access to an almost unbelievably extensive range of products. eCommerce is the future of retail and the Covid pandemic merely accelerated an existing trend.

Whilst starting a business is easy, growing them is hard, no matter what market you are in. Online retail is already highly competitive and getting more complicated all the time as new and established businesses enter the market.

In this chapter, we look at strategies for growing an eCommerce business. These can be divided into platforms (e.g. Amazon, eBay, eCommerce website) and techniques (e.g. Search Engine Optimisation, email marketing) that can be used to acquire new customers and retain existing ones.

Fundamentals of growing a business

Whether you are a mom-and-pop store or an international brand, all businesses have the same three options available to grow their business. These are:

1. Attract new prospects and convert them to customers.

2. Increase the average transaction value.

3. Encourage existing customers to order more frequently.

eCommerce businesses are no exception. They live and die on their success at driving traffic from new or existing customers and then converting it into sales. The process is summarised in this simple equation:

Traffic Average Order Value (AOV) Conversion Rate = Gross Merchandising Volume (GMV)

In this chapter, we look at each of these sections in turn:

1. Attracting new customers

There are two sources of traffic that eCommerce businesses can harness:

• Driving traffic to your website from paid or organic (e.g. free) sources. Sources of traffic include Paid Search and Search Engine Optimisation.

• 3rd party platforms. By selling through marketplaces, such as eBay and Amazon, you can reach hundreds of millions of customers all over the world.

Once you have attracted potential customers, you need to convert them into buyers. Improving your conversion rate, either on your website or on third-party listings, will reduce your cost of advertising and increase your sales. This can be achieved by measuring your performance through web analytics packages, e.g. Google Analytics, and applying usability best practices.

2. Improving Average Order Value

Improving your average order value will increase revenue from the same number of customers, boosting profitability if costs stay constant. Average order value can be enhanced through promotions, such as free shipping over a minimum purchase threshold or changing your mix of products to increase your average ticket price.

3. Retention marketing

When eCommerce businesses start, they typically focus on acquiring new customers. Doing this is easy if you do not mind paying for advertising on Google or Facebook. However, whilst it is always important to acquire customers, it is up to five times more expensive to sell to a new customer than an existing one.