A bunch of indie hackers critiqued my store, so I took their advice and now it's thriving. Here's what I learned!

First of all: thank you Indie Hackers!

Last year I officially began my move out of full-time employment and into full-time entrepreneurship, and one of the side hustles that got me there was an ecommerce storefront. I read and learned and watched tutorials and my plan was to launch a Shopify store for a single product and build a whole brand around it. I would then use that brand to be the "sponsor" for a bunch of other information products I was working on. I had a logo and a vision and a full ecosystem strategy.

What I didn't have was sales. 😅

So I created this post on Indie Hackers and asked for advice. Clearly my store wasn't working, so what was it? How could I improve things?

The community DID NOT HOLD BACK and delivered some very candid feedback. I took it all to heart, thought about some of the more valid criticisms, and went back to the drawing board. I realized I was more interested in the brand than the product, and that I wasn't thinking like a consumer. Despite all the thought I put into it... they were the wrong thoughts!

Anyway, now the store is thriving. I achieved "Star Seller" status with a best-selling item and all five-star reviews. It's not my primary business at this point, but it still delivers steady, passive income almost everyday.

Here are the 5 things that made the biggest difference, and things I learned along the way:

• Start on a marketplace, not Shopify. This one might be controversial, since Shopify is amazing, but it was not the right place for this particular product. When I launched on Shopify it was a classic "I built it, but no one came" situation. Even when I invested in weeks-long holiday ad campaign, NONE of the visitors converted. When I rebuilt the store on Etsy instead people naturally found my product almost immediately. I forgot that marketplaces are also search engines. People go there to search for products, and there are built-in suggestions + SEO benefits that can accrue more naturally to your product. It's the difference between opening your own store for a single product vs. getting shelf space in Wal-Mart. Lesson: Get shelf space in Wal-Mart!

• The brand/logo didn't matter that much. Classic mistake. I spent so much time crafting a logo and brand that I thought could lift the perceived value of the product and help me justify a higher price point. It turns out many people were confused by a lot of it ("What is a Renaissance bag? I don't know what that means..."). I was being too clever by half. So when I launched on Etsy I stripped down the brand concept to its core and put it in the description. Simple. I kept the logo, but to be honest I don't think it helps me sell bags. I didn't even need the domain name, or the additional vanity URL I purchased for use in ads. I thought an Italian name would be cool and a little more premium but really it just means people don't know how to pronounce it and can't easily remember it. I should have had a simple, bold, easy to remember name and called it a day. :)

• Your buyer isn't necessarily your target The product is a men's shoulder bag, and it's a vintage style that is designed to dress up or dress down so you can bring it to all sorts of settings. But it turns out that women buy the bag a lot more than men, usually as a gift for husbands, boyfriends, etc. Which wasn't a total surprise, and might have something to do with Etsy's user demographics, but is a valuable insight when it comes to writing copy. I used that insight as well as other questions/confusion people had and revised my product description to be simpler, with the more common questions addressed first. There is now a lot less fluffy "marketing" language and much more description.

• Look at search data. One benefit of moving to Etsy is the super easy to use metrics and data they provide. After a few weeks I decided to take a look to see how people were finding my store, and what keywords they were typing in. "Messenger bag" was far and away the most popular keyword but it wasn't even included in my product title or description! It was just a category/tag I selected to cover my bases on the back end when I initially set up the store. I don't think it's technically a messenger bag design but people clearly think of it as one, so: it doesn't matter what I think! I updated the title and tweaked the copy and noticed a big difference from then on in terms of traffic, now that the product is more in line with expectations.

• Go above and beyond from the start to get reviews. The first goal was to get. a. review. It took longer than I expected. To get there I provided free shipping, I mailed out orders right away, I responded to comments immediately, and I went over the top in terms of time spent answering questions or providing links to resources. Despite all this I had one return early on that discouraged me. The bag wasn't what she expected, she didn't like it, and she asked for a refund. I issued the refund immediately and even sent her a prepaid return label (usually customers are responsible for return postage). I was not going to let a few bucks get in the way of a positive experience so early on. I also got in the habit of sending every buyer a proactive message one week after their order arrived, just thanking them again and providing them with info and resources for caring for the bag. That way they would be more inclined to go out of their way and maybe leave a good review. One good thing about Etsy is that it automatically sends a product review email a week or two after the order, prompting people to leave one if they want to. Once I had a few positive reviews I felt comfortable raising my price a little to compensate for the free shipping I had been providing, since now I had some social proof for future visitors. Until then: do whatever it takes to delight customers.

These things might not sound groundbreaking, but the key point is this: focus on sales, not brand. Launch something! Get up and running quickly, and use a marketplace like Etsy or ebay or Amazon to gauge demand, get reviews/feedback, and make adjustments. If at that point you've found your niche and have hit on something people like and want, then you can think about investing in bigger, more professional brand & technical infrastructure.

One benefit to Shopify is that you have more autonomy and control over your site, and are able to run tracking pixels for detailed ad targeting purposes. But ads cost money, and you're paying for eyeballs on your product. If you're launching an ecommerce site, consider getting up and running on a marketplace first and letting the eyeballs more naturally come to you.

Anyway, thanks again to this great community, I really do appreciate it! 🙏