E-Commerce Examples | 5 Inspirational Case Studies for You
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When we first started building websites to try to earn additional side income to our then corporate jobs, we always found it inspiring and encouraging to read e-commerce examples and case studies.
Managing an ecommerce site is not easy and quite frankly, downright discouraging a lot of times during the early days.
If you have a full-time job, kids, extracurricular activities, or other “life” obligations, trying to squeeze out a few more hours a day or a week to build a business is pretty tough.
For us, what really helped brighten some days, or gave us a bit more energy to keep going, was to come across success stories from e-commerce examples.
It gave us hope that at least some people were achieving success and that we could as well if we kept at it. It showed us that people not that much different from us, can “make it”.
Furthermore, these e-commerce examples also gave us some helpful insights into what strategies, tactics or tools that they used to build their businesses. We find these interesting and educational, even till this day.
Aside from watching Shark Tank, here are a few other e-commerce examples will be of some inspiration to you as well.
We’ll also share with you one of our favorite source of learning from other successes businesses (and their failures) later in this post below.
1) What to Sell Online – if you need some ideas on what to sell, see this detailed discussion
2) eCommerce Builder Comparison Chart – see side-by-side comparison between different online store builders
3) Best Ecommerce Platforms – to compare the best of the best on the market today
E-COMMERCE EXAMPLE #1: SELLING $170,000 WORTH OF HOT SAUCE IN 10 MONTHS
There you have it. You don’t have to invent another Facebook to become successful!
Casey and Morgan created their own hot sauce using raw honey and chili flakes, and sold $170,000 worth of it within 1 year.
This case study goes over some insightful tips, lessons, and tools that they use to power their e-commerce online store.
E-COMMERCE EXAMPLE #2: HOW THESE FULL-TIME PARENTS SELL DOLL CLOTHING PATTERNS AND EARN $50,000 PER MONTH IN SALES
This case study is particularly inspirational, as the couple that built this business are full-time parents.
It also shows you how you can create a very successful business, even in very narrow niches. In this case, they are selling doll clothing patterns (really!!)
Jason and Cinnamon found a problem that needed solving, leveraged their skills, and sold digital products to their customers.
This is a great example of how digital products work, how they’re more leverageable than physical products, and what tools they used to sell digital download products.
E-COMMERCE EXAMPLE #3: HOW A FRESH JUICE COMPANY GREW SALES FROM $8,000 PER MONTH TO $96,000 PER MONTH
It’s not easy to sell any product, and to gain momentum to grow sales is just as challenging.
Jessica, the founder of Raw Generation, similar to all small businesses, went through a phase of figuring out how to generate sales.
She had to figure out how to position her juicing product, and what is the most effective way to generate more sales. She experimented with deal sites (such as Groupon, etc) and grew her business from there.
In this case study, Jessica also shares 5 important lessons she learned through her own experiences in building her business.
E-COMMERCE EXAMPLE #4: EX-CRIMINAL BUILT AN ONLINE BUSINESS THAT GENERATES $80,000 PER MONTH IN SALES
It really doesn’t matter what happened to you in the past. If put forth hard work, perseverance and continually learn, you can also succeed in building a business.
Robert Nava was in an out of correctional facilities from 11 years old to 27 years old. But that didn’t stop him in achieving success in selling outdoor gear.
He focused on building a dropshipping business as he didn’t have any of his own products to sell, and gained traction through building a following through Facebook.
Free Guide to Dropshipping – see this guide to get good insights into how to build or improve your ecommerce dropshipping business
Succeeding in building an e-commerce business doesn’t always discriminate against your past. You can control your own future if you give yourself permission to do so.
E-COMMERCE EXAMPLE #5: HOW A BUSINESS BUILT A 7-FIGURE BUSINESS LEVERAGING OFF YOUTUBE
Most people believe that the only ways to market to potential buyers are through traditional advertisement channels, such as newspaper or magazine ads.
What this husband and wife team did, was tap into to sell hair extension products.
The way they did it was through providing great, valuable content to their audience by offering them free video tutorials on how to create glamorous hair style (inspired by celebrities) on your own.
This “free” way of marketing is extremely powerful and effective. Tutorials are an excellent way of building a brand, fan base, and eventually marketing helpful products for your audience to purchase to them accomplish their goals (in this case study, create beautiful hairstyles).
ONE RESOURCE TO FIND INSPIRATIONAL BUSINESS EXAMPLES & STORIES
When we first started building our businesses, we found an awesome website that interviewed successful entrepreneurs. What we appreciated about these interviews is that the so-called “overnight successes” happened over years of struggles and failures.
In addition to understanding strategies and tactics of how these big and small businesses used to grow their ventures, the interviews also went deep into the psychology of the entrepreneurs, and what they struggled with.
They’re just people after all, and we definitely related to their experiences and found that their stories gave us encouragement and strength to push through some of our struggling times.
The website is Mixergy.com and I’d highly encourage you to watch or listen to some of the interviews as you’ll most likely find them very helpful as well.
CONCLUSION – HOW E-COMMERCE EXAMPLES CAN HELP YOU FIND YOUR SUCCESS
At the end of the day, trying to build your own business is not an easy journey, but it can be a very rewarding one.
Going at it alone is tough, so reading up on case studies can help make your journey a bit easier.
These case studies can show you new and interesting strategies or tactics, and can also be therapeutic by seeing how others also struggled the way you are now struggling.
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