When you’re one step away from turning your passion into an online business idea, there’s just one little question left to answer… How to build an ecommerce website that reflects your vision, deals with all the tech stuff to keep the business running, and doesn’t take tons of money and effort to launch?
Rena, our guest today, has found an answer to this question that has allowed her to embark on an ecommerce journey confidently. What did she come up with and how is it working out for her?
Hi, please introduce yourself!
My name is Rena, I am a physician and a mother of two: a daughter, 5, and a son, 3. My son had a medical condition and he went through a bone marrow transplant in 2020. I needed a more flexible schedule so I work part-time. I do a combination of per-diem work and medical consultations.
That’s A LOT to handle! What made you interested in learning how to build an ecommerce website, on top of that?
With my son having that condition and having our family go through the treatment process, especially mid-pandemic while isolated, it was a crazy time, a complicated journey for our family. There were many days when we had to make choices about whether or not we’re going to work. We faced many challenges along the way and this was an eye-opener for me.
I realized I had other gifts I wanted to explore in order to grow my income generating options, and spend more time with my family. It is very important to me to find a work-life balance, still practice medicine, and have other sources of income.
That’s really where my journey started. I began thinking more broadly about what my gifts were, what my interests were, and thinking about ways to really utilize my gifts to their full potential and how that could benefit my family. After considering that and looking at the options for how I could do that, I think this is an important part of my life journey.
And that’s how your ecommerce story began…
My family has been through a lot so it was important for me to have a more flexible schedule and at the moment a part-time schedule is what is best for our family. I would love to do medical mission work and having additional income streams would allow me more flexibility to pursue medical mission work.
My initial plan as a physician was to try dropshipping medical supplies because I know the market and I thought that would be a great place to start. That’s something I’ve been looking into doing and I’m so grateful that I have so much support from the Sellvia team.
While doing research on online businesses and ways to utilize my skills, I came upon AliDropship, kept getting their emails, and decided to look into it. After a couple of weeks, I started rethinking my strategy and decided to give this a try. I liked the fact that there was the benefit of the Sellvia catalog with all these wonderful options for products you can start with. Another thing that I liked was that it’s cost-effective as you can literally start for free.
Why did you choose to build an ecommerce website with Sellvia?
I decided to go with Sellvia because they make it easy for you. Products are uploaded and ready to go with marketing support from the team. The Sellvia team actually has been fantastic, helping with everything. I always have a million questions and the staff is very responsive.
I love the fact that I can use the already prepared resources: get marketing materials, download pictures, and make videos for the products. Actually, I imagine that I would have to pay for daily service if I was working with another company but with Sellvia, you get life-time support at no additional cost.
So, how did Sellvia build an ecommerce website for you?
They created a Premium store for me -– an exact copy of an already running store in the Family niche. That fits my requirements: I wanted to solve the problem of just getting started and having the foundation with the right products to be successful. I believe that Sellvia has definitely helped me with getting a solid start.
How is your new business going?
My site has been up for 3 weeks, but I started officially 2 weeks ago when most of my packages were in place. These are several Sellvia packages I bought to help my business grow and I believe it’s paying off. I have 2 sales so far!
That’s an inspirational start! What are you doing to make these and more sales happen?
First, there’s social media activity. On Instagram, I seem to be doing well with followers and engagement, and I think this might be a good strategy for sales. I am up to almost 16k Instagram followers and they seem to be engaging at a rate of 3-5% (from total reach) when I last checked. I get between 1-2k likes/engagement actions, with baby products and jewelry apparently getting the most likes on posts.
On Facebook, I launched my first contest giveaway video ad to help collect emails for email marketing (I’ve got my campaigns prepared with Sellvia’s email package). I use Social Rabbit to automate some of SMM posting and post manually as well which is helping a lot.
Plus, I decided to start blogging on each category in my store and highlighting selected items in these articles. I figured that it will help with SEO and eventually boost traffic, but this is my first time doing this and I only did 3 articles so far.
And of course, there are videos! I have YouTube and TikTok accounts and post my videos there. I even bought some products from Sellvia to create unique content by making unboxing videos.
Can’t go wrong with a busy schedule like this one! What are your business plans, overall?
The store presentation and brand image is what I will be working on. I want the logo and the overall design to represent me and my vision. The fact is that it is an online store so there has to be something that sets it apart from others. I want to be very successful at this because this is a stepping stone that will help me progress towards my ultimate goal.
This is an honor for us to be a part of such a striking story. Thanks to the Sellvia offering, Rena doesn’t have to wonder how to build an ecommerce website anymore, and can dedicate her time and effort to things that truly matter. We wish her the best of luck with achieving any ambitious horizons she has in mind, and can’t wait for her business to break records!
