Becoming a small business owner is never an easy task, and starting your venture from the ground up can be a real challenge.
But can it really stop you from pursuing your dream?
Today, we’re having a chat with Sotirios, a small online business owner who has all sorts of plans to make his store a real hit!
Hi, please introduce yourself!
Hi, my name is Sotirios Bogris, I am 61 years old and live in Greece. At the age of 19 I moved to Canada to study: I am an IT consultant by education and profession. For 40 years, I lived in Toronto, and now I’m back to my homeland. I enjoy swimming, bicycling, and all things outdoors.
What’s the backstory to you becoming a small business owner?
I actually dabbled with dropshipping through eBay using AliExpress products in the past. It wasn’t much of a success, but still was OK.
I did some online research of other ecommerce business models and discovered I could get a Premium Store from AliDropship — a copy of an already profitable online store. The numbers looked interesting, and I requested a profitable car accessories store to be copied for me.
But what really got my attention was the delivery time across the US — for the store products. I asked my personal manager about how that’s possible, and she explained that these products are provided by Sellvia which has its own warehouse in California and therefore can arrange fast shipping.
Shipping time has always been a great concern for me: the thing is, I had some negative experience when I was doing my eBay dropshipping. I was receiving customer complaints about the long shipping time, and there was nothing I could do about it. With AliExpress, even though their logistics has recently improved thanks to more warehouses outside of China, it’s still a few weeks.
And Sellvia has this issue resolved. Even though it gets my business operations limited to the USA only, it’s a big market, and fast shipping is very good.
With these fast shipping benefits your clients get, how is the store doing?
I have been running it for 5 months, and here are the results for the last 4 months.
Why am I considering the July-October period only? Well, that’s because I only started advertising my store in July – and just before that, I became a member of Sellvia. I like that they have marketing materials readily available for the products, and I’m looking forward to promo videos being added to their database of downloadable ads, too.
So, as you can see, I’ve got 438 orders and just over $18K in sales during this period of time. Still, I have to admit I am not profitable yet since my expenses far exceed my revenue.
In July, the revenue was just over $1,000. It got to $4,500 in August. In September, it was $4,700. And in October, it was $8,300.
How exactly are you promoting your store?
Primarily I promote it through Facebook ads. I had started with PPE first and then I tried conversions campaigns as well. I’m getting quite a bit of engagement: people are liking the page and reacting to the posts. To keep the audience interested, I make a new post every week or every couple of weeks to share the products and show some new stuff.
Recently, I started with Instagram ads as well, but I’m just trying them out as for now.
And also, there are sales promotions. I had a discount coupon on my site for Halloween, as well as worked on similar thematic campaigns for Black Friday and Christmas.
What are your plans for the future?
Like I said, I want to achieve higher profits with lower ad spending, and that’s what I’m working on actively right now. There will be changes to how I run Facebook campaigns in terms of the creatives I use and audience/display settings I choose. Plus, I’d like to add some more products for analyzing the market. With my current campaigns, I’m solely focused on promoting 3 flagship products.
I was thinking about email marketing campaigns as well because I have a few hundred customers right now. I can use their email addresses as a database and see where it takes me. And if all this leads me to a more optimistic financial result, I’d like to get another store in the future!
Having already processed over $18,000 worth of online orders, Sotirios has a clear idea of what he wants to achieve next – and is on the right track. From fast shipping to ready ad materials and expert guidance, Sellvia has everything it takes to make his vision come to life. We wish Sotirios the best of luck with his exciting plans, and hope his example inspires everyone who dreams of becoming a small business owner!