Create a profitable E-commerce site in just 15 days
Background
I have been consulting at a media company for around six months and felt like I needed an extra challenge. I was starting to feel removed from the act of creating something. Much of my work at this stage of my career is about imparting my experience and knowledge rather than the practical application of it. In short, I might be in danger of no longer being able to practice what I preach. I also just miss relying on myself to get a job done, most of the projects I have been working on involved large multi-disciplined teams.
So I have set myself a challenge: Could I set up and run a profitable E-commerce site in 15 days with a budget of just £100 ($129)?
The Rules
- All work has to be undertaken outside working hours and weekends.
- Favours from friends and family are allowed, but no money can change hands.
- Each step has to be documented, so no secrets and no holding back.
- All marketing has to be ethical and transparent.
- All products, tools, marketing and tech need to be accounted for, but I am allowing myself to use my current hosting account for free as part of the project as there is no incremental cost.
Admissions & Disclaimers
I have never, ever, set up an e-commerce site. In fact I only have a very rudimentary knowledge of how they work. I predominantly work with content, marketing it, and building engaged audiences for publishers.
I do know a fair bit about social media and influencers. I am also interested in ethical products, as well as the relatively new trend of transparent marketing. I would like to think that I have an eye for a well designed product and should have my finger on the pulse of most current trends.
In media there has been a lot of discussion of late about the value of content and influencers as part of the marketing mix, so for my own benefit I want to confirm some of my theories as well as honing my practical social marketing skills.
I also wanted to prove that consumers/users are much more savvy than we give them credit for, that being honest about your practices and value exchange between brands and consumers comes with additional benefits.
Personal Disclaimer — I have not been paid by anyone to write about particular products or promote businesses in anyway. In the following articles I will document the process I went through step by step, and will provide links to varies services and suppliers where appropriate. All links will be shortened so I can monitor what people find interesting and some of these links may be affiliate links. If a particular link is an affiliate link I will flag this so you are aware, but I encourage you to still consider clicking on the link, as any commissions will be declared at the end of the project and count towards the P&L, which I will publish at the end.
Thank you
I would like to thank for reading this article and hope you enjoy the rest of the series. As I will be writing this publication over the next 15 days, I’d welcome your feedback and ideas. I will of course credit you for any contributions, and I am excited to see what you think. So, sit back and enjoy the next two weeks, while I bust a gut trying to make this work.
If you want to read earlier articles in this publication, you can subscribe to The Ecomm Challenge here.
Contact
If you want to chat with me you can reach me on messenger. I’ve now set up a Messenger bot, so if you’d like to get regular updates about the E-Commerce Challenge subscribe here
If you would like to help me in my challenge please leave a comment below.
