Advice for Selling Online From Ecommerce Entrepreneurs(shopify.com)
shopify.com
Advice for Selling Online From Ecommerce Entrepreneurs
http://www.shopify.com/blog/13910901-how-to-sell-online-the-single-best-pieces-of-advice-from-41-successful-ecommerce-entrepreneurs
3 comments
"even successful companies don't know the secret to their success" - so true. I speak to successful online entrepreneurs almost every day and am constantly surprised by the lack of strategy used and the lack of awareness of what actuallY moved the needle for them. Sometimes the cherry picked 'best practical advice' is just a shot in the dark (though still very helpful).
I think the best piece of advice for ecommerce entrepreneurs is: "My apartment doubles as our office. Keep your costs as low as possible." I've seen a lot of new online store owners see a big jump in success early on due to the excitement of a new product launch or kickstarter campaign (or PR, viral on Reddit, HN..etc...) and they assume that success will continue so they double down on infrastructure. 2 weeks later, or a few months later things die down and they're locked into an office lease of 3 years.
Coincidentally, I listened to a podcast episode on survivor bias this morning: http://youarenotsosmart.com/2013/05/23/survivorship-bias/ where the main takeaway for business is that "success boils down to serially avoiding catastrophic failure while routinely absorbing manageable damage".
Essentially, even successful companies don't know the secret of their success.