In ancient Rome, salt was a posession of the wealthy. At a dining table, the most esteemed guests sat closer to the salt supply and the lesser guests went without. Salt mining was one of the most costly and taxing tasks of the past. As recently as the early 20th century, it was a job for prisoners in Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The work was so complex and inefficient that automation and simplicity was a forgone conclusion, as were profits.
The internal combustion engine (ICE) changed all of that. The mechanics of it are simple enough. Chemicals generate a certain amount of heat and pressure, that pressure generates a force applied to a component of the engine. Invisible content produces a mechanical result. That mechanical result has enabled a today where 18,000 tons of salt each day are produced, profitably — in one central New York salt mine alone.
eCommerce brands like Amazon, Ebay, Zappos, Target, and Barnes & Noble have superior Net Promoter Scores (buy expensive report here). Smaller operations like Net-A-Porter ($900M annual) and Rogue (undisclosed) have been successful at achieving enormous growth by focusing on net promoters. And due to their consumer success, these companies have influenced how every young eCommerce brand, whether $1M annum or $25M annum, has to do business to survive in a brave new world.
You can found an eCommerce startup, but keep in mind that the innovation cycle continues to accelerate. In 2008, you could stay ahead by planning another innovation for 2010. By Q2 FY10, you had to innovate by Q3 FY11. And by Q1 2014, major UX/UI tweaks were being planned for Q3 of the same year. Now, tweaks are made continuously.
Start an eCommerce operation, the old way, and you’ll have five to eight professionals on payroll with a salary cap of $340,000 and a development budget of $150,000+. You’ll employ the services of BV Accel or Rocketcode, before launch. You’ll have subscriptions to Front App, Salesforce, and other enterprise tools.
Until recently, this is the typical personnel make up for a high growth, upstart eCommerce brand:
That was pre-market correction. These days, eCommerce has to launch “The Mark Watney Way.” Frugality, speed, and ingenuity are the ultimate advantage. A novice eCommerce brand can still achieve a $1,250,000 at 30% gross margin in the first year, with just a small budget for content, social ads, and retargeting.
“Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped.” — Commander Mark Watney
A smart founder will always leave money on the table for the sake of efficiency and sustainability. You may be short a few key people and a few software licenses. The site will have sales funnel issues, the user experience will need to be tweaked, and search is run by manual tagging and manual metadata input. Worse, customer service will have a slower average response time, and content marketing isn’t as strong. These are typical, year one issues.
But you don’t have to salt mine without an internal combustion engine, just because your operation is small. There are ducktape solutions for undermanned and underfunded teams (i.e. the majority of startups).
In November, I began developing an MVP for an eCommerce tool called The All Dash. It is a web app that features tabs devoted to important operations. Each tab represents a primary function: automated B2B partnership communications, influencer marketing support, customer service support, PPC performance, and shipping logistics. It’s crass but functional. The spine of the dashboard is built on Google docs, various API’s, Zapier, custom logic based on personal insight. The javascript (.JSON, date, and math) functions range from: trigger methods, action methods, search methods, and authentication methods.
There are two sets of tabs, “B2C” and “B2B.” The collection is built to address real issues that the majority of young eCommerce companies face in the early stages.
For instance, by the time that you hit 300 orders, you are typically overrun by actionable customer emails. The result of that? Lesser focus on partnerships, business development, marketing, and management. So, I worked on something to help manage for small businesses.
The outcome: increased engagement and fewer customer service issues. I’ve summarized two examples for you.
B2B example: the shipping tab
While great, consumer-facing services like Spring App have done an amazing job with Shopify and Magento inventory integration, services like it can lose money on multiple-product orders due to variable costs in shipping.
Most younger eComms feature a combination of internal (branded) and external (drop-shipped) products, so that’s how this tab is addressed. When that UPS or FedEx plugin determines real time shipping prices, it doesn’t take into account that the product warehouse and the global position of the eCommerce store are not one in the same. The Dash addresses this in an interesting way. If a product has a proposed MSRP of $10, the true product price takes into account the average aggregate shipping distance from warehouse to consumer.
The web app runs eight scripts based on four distances (continental U.S. only), separated by peak / off time. If the app generates a price over the existing MSRP+shipping combination, it sends a message to Backpack that will remind you to build in shipping prices into the MSRP. The product now costs $13.40, the consumer still believes this to be fair, and profit margins are protected.
B2C example: the Instagram influencer tab
You’re a great photographer and your brand followers know that. But how will you turn liker’s and commenter's into buyers? It takes more than adding a link to your bio.
Instagram ads have reduced the engagement of all influencer and organic posts. Brands have to find new ways to market. In this tab, you’re notified when an influencer tags a friend in your comments and that friend comments, likes the post, or follows your account. When this occurs, your dashboard is notified via Slack and given the option of DMing the influencer and friend with a temporary Referral Candy link for the product featured in the instagram post.
This is an actionable moment that until now, has never seen any suitable automation.
The web app currently serves five functions (tabs) but I’m working on more. The All Dash web app isn’t the engine. But like the invisible chemicals that apply pressure to components, the dash does produce a mechanical result for small teams. The mechanical result isn’t just sales, it’s an improved net promoter score. Sales and retention, due to consumer success, is the mechanical energy that leads to growth. And profitable growth is key to survival in startups, today.
Then one day, you’ll be able to afford that team, those agencies, and that coveted collection of software licenses. But until then, grow potatoes in manure while you’re building that rocket.
Learn just a little bit more about The All Dash. And here is my linkedin if you’d like to discuss more about eCommerce strategy.
