As I’ve mentioned in a couple of previous posts, part of my funemployment has been spent starting a small business.
This business centers on adult novelty items (think things people buy for bachelorette parties or fun gag gifts) and the concept was the brainchild of my sister.
When I quit my job 8 months ago, there were a lot of things I wanted to challenge myself with. One was building this website. Another was creating the products for this business.
Fast-forward 8 months and the products are designed, manufactured, and (mostly) packaged. I’ve made a small website, but have been hesitant to pursue other sales avenues (mainly because I’m worried if I go too quick, I’ll find myself overwhelmed and dig myself into a hole).
However, my sister and I have been talking about Amazon for a while and last week I had some extra time so I did a bit of research.
After reading this guide to selling on Amazon, I decided to give it a shot. Sure, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but why not go for it? The only way to really learn it and see if Amazon is a good fit is to try it out.
That was last Friday. By yesterday afternoon, two products were listed online.
Today, at about 9am, I got an email: something had sold! And then, a few hours later, another buyer had purchased something. The best part? This person bought not 1 but 2 items! And finally, a third person bought something this evening.
Here’s the timeline of everything Amazon-related that I did in the last week:
- Friday: Applied for Amazon seller account
- Saturday: Approved for Amazon seller account
- Monday: Found a local photographer who agreed to photograph my products
- Tuesday: Got product photos taken and edited
- Wednesday: Listed 2 products on Amazon
- Thursday: Sold 4 items to 3 buyers
As you can see, when I decide to do something, I move quickly. Because I can. That’s one of the reasons why traditional work environments are difficult for me – they can be so damn inefficient. I like to get things done!
But anyway – wow! When I listed the products yesterday I didn’t really know what to expect, but I certainly didn’t think I’d see any sales for a few weeks. I would have been happy with just one person even seeing my product listing today. So the fact that there was not only traffic, but also enough interest that people wanted to buy is a huge win!
This isn’t actually the first product I sold online – a few weeks ago I launched my own website for the business. Just a few days later, someone placed an order! I didn’t recognize the name and got super excited that 1) a stranger had found the website and 2) a stranger had bought something.
The only problem? It turns out this stranger is a friend of my sister’s (and therefore not a true stranger). I certainly appreciated the business, but it wasn’t the big break I initially thought it was. It was a false start, so to speak.
In the 2 weeks since, there has been some organic traffic to the site (that means strangers found their way there via Google). But nobody else has bought anything. Therefore, before today, my grand total of online sales was 1.
No worries about that – it takes a while for new sites to gain traction and rank highly in Google so there’s some patience required.
But that experience is why I really didn’t expect much on Amazon; I thought it would take some time there too.
That experience is also why I’m cautious about making any extrapolations based on today’s sales. Maybe it was a fluke! Only time will tell if this business really has legs.
But there are some positive signs: the sales were from 3 different states, both products had at least one sale, and Amazon hasn’t kicked me off yet! So I’ll be going to bed happy tonight 🙂 I’m excited to see where this goes!
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