8 Tips for a Successful Online Store — Step-by-Step Guide & Transcript

[00:02] a month from a simple online store they built themselves from home with less than $3,000 in capital, and it's still providing them with a steady monthly income? You might be surprised and say it's impossible; you need a huge amount of capital. Unfortunately, this is an unrealistic view of e-commerce—that you need

[00:18] tens or hundreds of thousands to open a successful online store. This is absolutely untrue. We can even open a sustainable online store with less than $3,000 that provides us with a monthly income. What I'm going to show you today isn't just motivational talk; it's based on over seven years of practical experience

[00:33] in e-commerce. I've worked in the Saudi, Gulf, and American markets, and what I've noticed is that most people who have successful stores started with a small amount of capital. Their idea isn't, "I want to build a million-dollar company and hire employees and all that." They don't

[00:47] want any of that; they just want a monthly income from the online store with minimal effort. They didn't have a large capital or extensive experience. Those who succeeded did so by seizing the right opportunity in the right way at the right time. To save you time on experimentation and research, I've

[01:01] compiled eight powerful practical tips that, if you start following them, will significantly shorten your journey to success with your online store. Let's begin with the first tip: follow where

[01:13] others have left off. If I asked you what the hardest decision is when starting an online store, most people would say choosing the product, because the product is the heart of the project. If you choose it wrong, you'll struggle a lot with marketing, sales, and everything else. You might even have to change your

[01:28] entire business model. But here's the secret that few know: the smartest way to choose a successful product isn't to come up with a brilliant idea, think from scratch, and start with something completely new. The smartest way is simply to follow where others have left off. So, how does that work? Let's take a practical example. If I

[01:44] decide to start an online store, say in Saudi Arabia, the first thing I'll do is go to a website like a local site and look at the Saudi trends. I'll click "View All," and it will show me the best-selling products of the day or the last two days. The past three days, in all

[02:00] major cities—Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, Medina, Dammam—for example, I'm from Jeddah. Okay, these are the top ten best-selling products, and they might change tomorrow, or next week. You'll get different things. So, this way, I know what the market is thinking, what people are buying, what

[02:16] products are in high demand, and so on. I can do the same thing with Noon, or even with the Saudi or Emirati Amazon sites, and others. If I want, for example, an international product, say from Europe or America, the first thing I'll do is go to the Amazon website and use a tool called Jungle Scout.

[02:30] This tool will help me find successful products with numbers, not just predictions about whether a product is successful or not. For example, I typed "men's clothing" into the search bar, and it brought up all these products and told me that this product sells, for example,

[02:46] this product sells, for example, 1,584 units per month, this one sells 50,000 units per month, this one sells 6,000 units per month, and so on. 32000. For example, if I click here, it will show me all the products on this page. It tells me that even this category is good ( 08 out of 10). So you have all these products and

[03:00] their ratings. I usually choose based on the ratings. I want to see someone new who just entered the ratings. I want to see someone new who just entered

[03:15] like him. I'll be the one to take a share of that market. This way, I won't risk trying new products that might or might not work. I'll let people take the risk and try them. Then I'll see a successful new product that I can take, make a few minor adjustments to, and take a

[03:31] share of the market. This way, you'll guarantee, God willing, a 99% success rate for your product. There's no doubt about it. Another great method I use is when I see a competitor's successful product, I look at their customer reviews. Some of them complain. For example, the texture isn't soft. Some people complained about

[03:46] the service being bad, the color fading over time, or problems like the clothes tearing quickly. There are also issues with the fabric and ironing. I take all this feedback and use it to improve the product. Okay, my second piece of advice: I know the successful product I want to bring in. I know it's

[04:01] clothes, for example, t-shirts, sweaters, or something like that. Should I risk ordering a large quantity without knowing if it will sell? No, especially if you don't have a lot of capital. The best way, and this is another piece of advice, is to start with local dropshipping. What is local dropshipping? It's simply the

[04:16] same idea as regular dropshipping: you deal with a supplier like AliExpress or Alibaba, and when an order comes in, AliExpress itself ships it to the end customer. But in this case, we won't go abroad. We won't go to China or Turkey. We'll find a supplier

[04:33] in the same country we're in. So, for example, I want sweaters. Okay, I won't go Should I risk importing goods from Turkey or China? First, I'll make an agreement with a wholesale supplier in my country. For example, I'll tell him, "Okay, I'm going to create an online store. I want to display your products in

[04:46] my store, and when an order comes in, I'll send you the shipping label, and you can ship it directly from your store to the end customer." This way, God willing, you'll ensure very fast shipping, possibly even on the same day. You'll also ensure you don't have to spend money on the products upfront. Most importantly, you'll be

[05:00] sure that this product is successful before you import a large quantity tomorrow from Turkey or anywhere else. This is the same business model most abaya shops operate on. For example, a woman might own an abaya shop, and most of them don't have stock of products in their room or

[05:14] warehouse. Most of them have agreements with tailors. If they receive an order, they'll send it to a tailor, for example, for 50 riyals, and he'll sew it for them, and then they'll sell it for 150 riyals. Before we move on to the third piece of advice, I hope you'll support me. I would be very happy and grateful if you would like and subscribe to the channel. May God protect you. My third piece of advice is that

[05:28] many people, after choosing a product, agreeing with the supplier, and setting up their store, immediately agreeing with the supplier, and setting up their store, immediately launch their first advertisement. But is your store actually ready from a marketing perspective to receive customers? Let me ask you a very important question that I always tell young men

[05:42] and women: Before you bring guests to your home, what do you usually do? You prepare the house properly, right? You tidy the room, clean the place, make sure the air conditioner is working well, the lighting is good, and everything else is in order. Because it's not good to have guests sitting around, for example, and suddenly the air conditioner isn't working. They're sitting in the heat, no matter what

[05:57] suddenly the air conditioner isn't working. They're sitting in the heat, no matter what lunch, dinner, juices, and everything else you provide, they won't be satisfied because you haven't established the foundation, which is the air conditioning and the pleasant atmosphere. The same applies to an online store. Before we bring visitors to our store, we must make sure that our store is

[06:10] visitors to our store, we must make sure that our store is ready from a marketing perspective because the more market-ready it is, the higher the conversion rate will be. So, when you spend 1000 riyals, you might be able to... You might get 2000 riyals in sales, but if you optimize the store, that same 1000 will bring you three, four, and even 5000

[06:25] riyals, God willing. So make sure you have all the payment gateways. First, try to make the purchase process as easy as possible. Some stores, when you want to buy from them, ask you for your name, email, father's name, mother's name, and so on. They ask so many questions that you end up

[06:38] leaving and not wanting to buy from them at all. So try to make it as easy as you can. You can even ask for their phone number and name, and then you can ask for the location later without any problem. Also, optimize the main categories of the store. Clearly state, for example, how long the shipping time is, what the store's features are, and what guarantees are

[06:51] available. The more you optimize your store in this way, the more you will increase your conversion rate. The fourth piece of very important advice is that the customer doesn't buy from your ad; they buy from your product page. They'll click on the ad, go to the product page, and there they'll decide whether to continue

[07:08] buying or leave. All the effort you've put into marketing and advertising will be wasted if your product page isn't strong. So how do you make it strong? First, use professional and clear photos of the product. If there are multiple components, photograph all of them.

[07:24] For example, take a picture of the perfume bottle and the glass bottle inside, unpacking it and showing it separately. Second, use a compelling description that resonates with the customer's emotions and feelings. Explain why your product is unique and what added benefits it offers.

[07:40] For example, if you have a shampoo that makes your hair black, instead of saying "hair-darkening shampoo" for people whose hair is starting to turn gray, you could say something like "regain your youth in minutes." It's also important to clearly explain all the

[07:54] product's features. Whether it's the size, weight, or volume of the item—for example, if it's perfume, what are the perfume's ingredients, what size is it, is it for men or women, where is it manufactured—all the questions that might be on a customer's mind at that time need to be clarified. There are also two things that, if you include them on the product page,

[08:08] will greatly increase the more reviews and ratings you have from previous customers, the higher the conversion rate will be. Because even when we go

[08:23] to an online store, if 1000 people have already bought it, and it says it's been purchased 1000 times, I feel reassured. That way, I'm not afraid to buy from that store for the first time. But when I enter a store and find that only three or four people have bought it, or no

[08:36] one has bought it at all, it's like a ghost or something. It might make someone hesitant to try it or afraid. And the fifth piece of advice, which is considered one of the biggest challenges facing online store owners, is pricing. Some people think that pricing... Honestly, I'll set a profit margin

[08:50] and sell, no problem. But there are huge factors that affect how much you can price. One of the most important things I've noticed is that some people acquire their products at a high cost, so when they add their some people acquire their products at a high cost, so when they add their profit margin, the price of their product becomes very

[09:04] high compared to the market. Consequently, they don't sell, no matter how successful their product is or how good their marketing is. It's difficult for them to sell and they need a little more investment. So when you ask them to make a sale, offer a discount, or do a special offer, they tell you, "I can't, I can't, there's absolutely no profit in it." That's the problem. The problem is that they

[09:19] profit in it." That's the problem. The problem is that they couldn't acquire the product at the correct cost. So, they should lower their price in the current situation, even if it means selling at a loss. They don't mind testing the product. If they're sure it's good, then they can move on to getting the goods from someone, whether

[09:32] wholesale or even from abroad. My sixth piece of advice is to take advantage of artificial intelligence tools advice is to take advantage of artificial intelligence tools and work smart, not hard. Take this as a rule in the world of e-commerce: the secret isn't just working hard. The biggest secret is to work with ideas. Today,

[09:46] AI tools are readily available, unlike before. This is an opportunity for them to help us in our work and save the effort and time we spend on it. So, what tools can actually help me succeed in my online store? The first tool is ChatGPT. It will help you

[09:59] write ideal descriptions for your products. It can describe the store's features and help you with advertising campaigns. It gives you descriptions for advertising campaigns in a professional and attractive way, and it doesn't take long at all. You can even edit afterward, telling it to adjust here and there. It

[10:15] filters, giving you 80%, and you complete it to 100%. The second tool is Canva AI. You can now create designs with AI, so you might not need to hire a designer or even design yourself, which takes a very long time. With just a few buttons, you can create a design for your product

[10:32] directly. The third tool is InVideo AI. You can also create videos using AI. These videos can help you in advertising campaigns within the same store. For example, you can create videos like So, on social media, maybe on Instagram,

[10:47] TikTok, and others, of course, this doesn't mean you should hand everything over to artificial intelligence. Let it give you 80%, as we said, and you complete the rest to give your store and brand a special touch. And the seventh piece of advice: understand your numbers. One of the strongest things that

[11:02] successful store owners excel at is that they analyze and understand the numbers and consider them, as they say, what the numbers are that guide them to do this or not do that, based on the numbers. So, it doesn't work from the perspective of "I feel," "I expect," or "I see," it might be like that. No, based on the numbers, so, for example, you did an

[11:17] advertising campaign on Snapchat and spent $1000 on it and it didn't bring you, God forbid, a single sale. What's the problem? So, first we analyze the ad itself. What is the CTR or click-through rate? Did many people click on it, or did most of them leave? If no

[11:32] one clicked on the ad at all, then the problem is with the ad, not the site, because not many people reached the site. Why? To assess the site, I'm developing the advertising. Okay, the site, I'm developing the advertising. Okay, the ad is working, and there are a lot of clicks, but they still haven't

[11:44] bought anything. Okay, what's the problem? Analyze it. The problem might be on the product page or the landing page I directed them to. So, I'll use tools like HotGar or Google Analytics to see where people stop, exit, and refrain from buying. I might

[11:58] notice that they exited when they found out the shipping was 25 riyals. They were expecting, for example, free shipping or a nominal fee. So, I'll know what the problem is and I can solve it. I can even contact the customers themselves. Contact me via WhatsApp. We saw you added to the cart, but you didn't buy. How

[12:11] can you help us? What challenges do you face? What's your opinion? Every action that happens in your store, whether in the theme, the design, the ads, or the product, you have to understand what each action is so you can make your decisions. Because successful merchants don't operate haphazardly; they operate based on

[12:26] data and make very sound decisions. And the eighth piece of advice, which I personally recommend for those who have progressed a bit in their store and whose business is doing very well, is to invest in a remote team. One of the biggest challenges facing merchants is

[12:39] trying to do everything themselves: designing, writing writing descriptions, taking photos, reviewing products, creating ads, changing the store's theme, handling customer service—everything. They might be doing well, but

[12:53] customer service—everything. They might be doing well, but this will prevent them from growing gradually or expanding their project significantly. So, I highly advise that if there's any income in the project, reinvest it, especially in manpower and the team, and hire them all remotely. There's no problem with

[13:07] remote freelancers helping you; you'll give them, for example, a certain amount, and they'll reimburse you many times that amount. Ultimately, you're growing your business, increasing your market share, and improving the name of your store. But I'm not suggesting you hire a full team from day one. On the contrary, it's natural to

[13:22] start by doing things yourself to learn. Understand how the system works, test, experiment, and adjust, but don't continue like this for too long because you'll be exhausted from operations and running the store. You won't have the energy or time to think about developing the business and the store. As soon as your store is up and running, start hiring and get everything out there.

[13:38] the business and the store. As soon as your store is up and running, start hiring and get everything out there. become professionals in this field while you develop your project. Finally, if you have any questions about e-commerce, write them in the comments section below. I hope this is helpful for everyone, and I would be

[13:53] very happy if you supported me with a like and subscribed to the channel. Thank you, thank you, thank you for watching, and I thank you for watching, and I hope to see you in the next video.