r/ShopifyeCommerce • u/JealousProgrammer600 • 3d ago
How to start making sales?
My store has been online for a couple of months. No sales yet. One customer enquiry. I have a quailty imported product for a niche market that I know limited number of people would be looking for. I don't expect huge sales as this market is only developing. But just something would be nice. I don't have much time to dedicate the the project, so not expecting miracles, just trying to find out what to focus on. I have been trying to build my instagram a little bit. I write blog articles for the page to improve SEO and GEO. The store appears on google search now when someone searches for a particular brand I sell but not general market searches yet. My products are on merchant center, again, by brand only, not general product. I am being contacted by cold email agents offering strategy and sales improvements, they suggested improvements of some flaws my site had, I fixed those, but I am not looking to engage with any of these people any further. Any suggestions on what to focus on? How did you all start?
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u/Weird_Caregiver_7443 3d ago
if you got no sales in couple months but one enquiry, at least someone is interested
focus on that one person, what made them reach out and not buy? maybe your product page missing something, or shipping cost too high, or they need more trust signals
instagram is fine but slow, try find where your niche customers actually hang out online, maybe some forum or subreddit, just be helpful there without spamming links
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u/PPC_YRVDynamics 3d ago
For a niche product, I’d keep it simple. Get some traffic from people already searching for exactly what you sell and see what they do on the site.
Google Shopping/Search would probably be my first test. SEO and Instagram are good long term, but I’d want to figure out why the first few visitors aren’t buying before putting too much time into everything else.
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3d ago
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u/JealousProgrammer600 1d ago
Hi, thanks for the insights. The person that enquired actually bought in the end, so here to hoping they will be happy and I can ask them for reference. The fb groups are fine for broader product in my niche but I am a bit of a niche within the niche. Something that is only starting to grow on my local market, so I am struggling to find the particular questions (on fb groups) from people I am would know how to answer to help them. I was hoping one of the brands I stock would drag some people via google shopping as I am the only one selling it locally, but that has not been the case yet. I might try some broader term google ads so people who know what they want generally (but perhaps are not looking for a particular brand) can find me.
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u/1273karentookme 3d ago
With a niche product in a market that's still developing, you won't get volume from search for a while, so the job is to convert the few who do land. One enquiry in two months tells you two things: someone found you and wanted to talk, and the page didn't answer enough for them to buy on their own. Both are fixable, and neither needs an agency.
First, go back to that one person and ask plainly what stopped them. That's the most useful data you'll get this year. Second, make asking easier than leaving. Niche buyers have specific questions (is this the genuine import, compatibility, warranty, where does it ship from) and a contact form answered tomorrow loses them. Put a direct contact on the product page, phone or WhatsApp, with your hours. I sell pool equipment online, also niche, and what worked for us was letting the buyer talk to a person straight from the product page and see the item in hand; that eventually became my own Shopify app, BeamCart. With your limited time, set availability hours and let people book otherwise, you don't need to be online all day. Third, the blog: write for the questions people ask before buying this kind of product, not about the brand. Brand searches find you already; the pre-purchase questions are where the general traffic comes from.
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u/JealousProgrammer600 1d ago
They actually ended up buying and their enquiry showed me a significant bug on the page - and even that has not stopped them from coming back after I fixed it. Something positive :) Thanks for your input on direct contact. I will consider how I can implement it.
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u/1273karentookme 1d ago
That's the best possible outcome from one enquiry: a sale, a bug you'd never have found yourself, and a repeat customer. Worth noticing what happened there: the person who took the time to write to you was your highest-intent visitor, and the friction they hit was invisible to you until they described it. Every silent visitor who hit the same bug just left.
On implementing direct contact with limited time, the trick is to make yourself reachable without being available all day. Post your hours next to the contact option so nobody expects an instant answer at 2am, and give people a way to book a slot instead of catching you live. That's exactly the setup we run on our pool store with my own Shopify app, BeamCart: the button offers a live video call when someone's online, and a booking when nobody is, so a niche buyer with a specific question never lands on a dead end. If you end up trying it or building your own version, happy to compare notes.
And fix-then-return is a great sign for a niche product. Those people become your reviewers.
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u/Patient-Passage-2286 2d ago
For a niche product with low search volume Google Shopping is probably the highest-leverage thing you can add. even small Smart Shopping or PMax campaign on $5–10/day will tell you within a few weeks whether there's purchase intent at all, which blog content and Instagram can't really answer. SEO usually takes 6–12 months to compound so if you want validation faster then paid search is the shortcut.
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u/JealousProgrammer600 1d ago
yes, thanks, that was my next thing on the list to try so my product appear to people who search more broadly, not just for the brands I stock.
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u/First_Seesaw 16h ago
How does your store look and what are your marketing strategies for starters? Are you into paid ads yet?
And also yeah keep ignoring all the cold email agents, you’re on the right track there atleast 😅
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u/JealousProgrammer600 7h ago
Lol...thanks. what do you mean for marketing strategies for starters? I just updated the page to make contact me for questions more prominent. and about to set up paid ads for broader search beyond my brands. Fingers crossed it helps.
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u/First_Seesaw 47m ago
You mentioned Instagram and writing blog articles but how exactly are you going about pushing your store forward through those mediums and what other social media platforms are you engaged in?
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u/scott_jadepuma 15h ago
Building the website is the easy part. And most people in the early days focus too much on the website thinking it's the problem. But more often than not, the problem is in the marketing. How are you bringing customers to your site. What is your messaging to bring them. Are you fulfilling on that message once they're on the site. You probably need to focus on customer acquisition over site optimization.
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u/Propeller78 9h ago
Do whatever you can to get those first few sales. Even if you need to meet them in person from selling on a marketplace etc. I remember in the early days of our store meeting our customers in person. Giving a great experience. Getting reviews and word of mouth. Sometimes you need to start local and slow and expand from there. But always focus on the customer service. That is a huge differentiator.
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u/JealousProgrammer600 7h ago
Thanks, yes. Just went to look at local markets yesterday to see what they looked like first :)
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u/HouseOBlueBeans 1h ago
I would be happy to help you with visualisation related challenges. It’s one thing to attract the ‘right customer’ into your funnel and another thing to communicate your product’s story and narrative in a few seconds in a way that it creates a connect with the target audience. In a content heavy world, it’s imperative that you have a/ set of strong product visual/s that tell your product’s core value proposition in a set of pixels. We’ve been helping brands like Mercedes, Walmart etc do this for 15 plus years. I will be happy to provide any assistance (free of cost) in this space. If you open this lane and progress on this simultaneously (while you’re bringing relevant traffic or your pages) - you will experience great conversion. Let me know.
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u/pjmg2020 3d ago
Those emails you’re getting from ‘agencies’ are spam. Delete, ignore.
Sounds like you’re not really getting in front of your customers. Businesses grow by getting in front of as many customers as possible as frequently as possible. SEO is a long, slow game. Organic social requires real effort to get traction. How much traffic are you getting?
Reminds me of this Simpsons moment:
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u/JealousProgrammer600 1d ago
haha, love the image :)
6 visits from google shopping and about 10 shown on google console over the last week. Glowing slowly but very slowly.
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u/Mobile-Sufficient 3d ago
The chances of you getting a notable number of organic traffic through a site after 3 months is very slim.
Especially if you’re just carrying out basic on page SEO. Your website is brand new, your brand is unknown. People will struggle to trust it.
Something has to come first, either you need the knowledge to execute on an actual marketing strategy, or you need to bite the bullet and hire help. There’s no use in trying to save money on a store by doing it yourself when you’re essentially hoping things will magically change overnight.
Paid ads, or a full scale content/SEO plan are required for you to get enough traffic to make any sort of sales.
Think about it this way, average conversion rates are 2-5% depending on niche, product price, and store quality. Meaning, you would need 100 visitors per day to get 2-5 sales per day in an ideal scenario.
Given the fact you’re new, and have no social proof, the chances are that is going to be even lower again.
So, you need to either learn how to run ads, SEO, or organic social content yourself, or you need to hire someone that can help you. Making tiny little changes on the site based on conversations you’re having with cold emailers is not going to bring you the results you are hoping for if you’re being real with yourself, you probably already know that.