My1stWish managing director Tayyab Akhlaq explains how he started his eCommerce business ‘by accident’, why holding stock is one of the biggest challenges he faces and why Amazon and eBay are great vehicles for sales.
What were you up to before My1stWish?
Before founding My1stWish in 2008, I had completed a degree in Computer and Electronic Engineering at Manchester Metropolitan University and was working as a graduate signal engineer at Carillion within the rail sector of the business.
Why start an eCommerce business?
I had never really planned to start an eCommerce business. A friend had a selection of stock that he wanted to get rid of through eBay in order to gain some revenue and I offered to help out.
After clearing the stock quickly and gaining a significant amount of profit we soon realised that we were on to a significant line of business and chose to investigate this industry further.
From discussions with suppliers, and analysing product and market trends, we decided it was an opportunity that we simply had to go for.
Why did you choose clothing, shoes and accessories?
After seeing a high volume of sales in this area we decided to stick to, Clothing, Shoes & Accessories (CSA), focusing specifically at the fashion conscious 16-24 year old age group.
At the time, about five years ago, this sector was a massive growth area for online and in particular eBay and after investigating it further we found that we were able to quickly source suppliers and easily build out a successful ecommerce business.
Prior to this fashion was not really a hot seller online, with one of the key reasons being the fact that there was no data for items and therefore all information had to be entered in manually.
What was the hardest thing about starting an online shop?
Today I would say that the hardest thing is the competition, because as you start up you typically have 50 to 100 other sellers selling that same product. However, when we first started we were lucky in the fact that there were only between five to ten sellers selling same products.
For us, one of the hardest things was managing the stock. We had never planned for it to be a business, and therefore as we began to grow managing the stock became increasingly harder, to the point where we had to stop selling some items as we had sold out.
How hard was it to get the business moving?
Once we had all the products in the right place, the business simply carried on; however it was maintaining that momentum that was difficult. We were lucky as we decided to implement an ecommerce system within the first three to four months of selling online.
From my understanding from talking to other sellers, if you go too long without using an ecommerce system it is then extremely difficult one at a later date. Therefore, I think we definitely made the right decision in getting on board early.
Did you use social media and did it help?
We didn’t actually use social media, instead we chose to use the tools on eBay and Amazon to facilitate virtual interaction and bring in the customers.
What software did you opt for and why?
We chose to use eSellerPro, the main reason being that the stock control system worked really well and the software naturally integrated into all the marketplaces, making it the perfect solution to enable our business to continue to grow.
We started to see the benefits immediately in terms of the time and resources saved and would say that the software has saved us the equivalent of employing two extra people.
Have you always used this software?
Yes, we chose the software based on a recommendation from another seller and it has worked so well for us that we have had no reason to switch to an alternative. With the help of eSellerPro we have grown to become a comprehensive business that incorporates multiple departments and stocks over 50,000 product lines.
What plans do you have to grow the business in the future?
Our main focus for the next 18-24 months is growing internationally. The key countries for us will be Australia, the Far East and Europe. We are also looking to expand our product range further within CSA and will continue to build our website business as well.
If you could have done anything differently what would it be?
I would have started using social media earlier to help drive traffic to the site and increase sales. The website side of our business is currently a lot slower than sales through ecommerce platforms such as eBay and Amazon, however if we had got on board with social media earlier I think this would have picked up quicker and we would have built those crucial relationships a bit earlier.
What’s your best sales tips for other online sellers?
My first top tip would be to make a plan. Retailers need to plan out their sales/inventory for the following sixth months to a year and stick to it. I think it’s also important to take risks, particularly online where the customer base is so wide, retailers should not be afraid to try something new.
For example, we tried selling kitchen accessories and are seeing great success in this sector now.
Another tip would be to try and go to any relevant industry events such as Internet Retailing Expo as without customer interaction; an online business can be lonely from time to time.
It also gives you the opportunity to network and speak to other people in the same position, which in itself can be beneficial for helping the business to grow.
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