It’s All Part Of Business
In this post I talked through how we established an e-commerce site (for portable hammocks). I wrote at length about the process of finding the right product that is a good fit for us in a number of ways.
I wrote that on December 22. Here are 2 things that have happened that will more than likely stop this site in it’s tracks.
1. On December 26 the supplier wrote to me to tell me he was increasing the wholesale price by 20%. That would mean that, based on our current business model, we would make a loss of $7.90 per sale.
2. I ordered a heap of hammocks on December 19. The salesperson promised me they would arrive here before Christmas. I received those hammocks yesterday – January 9.
Placating Angry Customers
I’ve spent probably 2 hours placating waiting customers as well as spent a lot more on express postage because I needed to get the hammocks out to those waiting customers.
End result:
- Angry customers
- Customers who won’t refer friends to the web site
- Turned profitable sales into losses
- Wasted 2 hours+ of my time
The major part of developing a business is working with the right people. The early indications are that the suppliers of the hammocks are not the right people to work with. And that comes from experiences like I’ve mentioned above.
Options:
So now I have 2 options:
1. Stop selling the hammocks
2. Keep selling the hammocks
I’m reluctant to stop selling the hammocks because we’ve invested a lot of time and a bit of money in establishing the web site. And that sometimes clouds peoples judgment – “If I hang in there, things might change.”
That’s Always The Mistake
And that is, in my experience, always the mistake.
So we’ll stop advertising and marketing this e-commerce site now. I’ll sell the final stock we’re carrying and then we’ll change the web site to something else.
And that’s disappointing. But that’s business. And this has given us a bit more experience on which to draw in future business dealings.
Regards
Brendon
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Thanks for this update, Brendon. I was wondering what was happening to jack’s business.
On one of your podcasts recently there was a comment or two on the difficulty of finding not only a product to sell but a reliable source. if I recall correctly you answered that you intend to follow up along those lines.
This is a huge problem in business today, for both on line and off line vendors. When you finally see the thing you want to sell, all glossy and slick in it’s shiny new wrapper you leap out there making the move to get it sold and when the orders come in? You find (for a multitude of reasons) the supplier can’t deliver.
There’s as much importance to qualifying your sources of supply as their is in testing your marketing methods and making sure your customers are credit-worthy .. or at least that’s been my personal experience. It;s kind of like a 3-kegged milking stool, any one of the three legs being weak will unceremoniously deposit you on your butt in a New York minute.
best regards
Dave