Saint_Dici Profile picture
Aug 27, 2019 11 tweets 3 min read Read on X
I started my first e-comm brand 6 years ago in my parents garage

I never thought this “idea" would generate MILLIONS in sales, hundreds of thousands of customers, employ people, & be globally recognized.

I made a ton of mistakes

Hopefully this helps you avoid some

~THREAD~
Product Photography - I had no idea how important this is for conversion rate

Clear images displayed well on desktop & mobile are key

Compressing images also makes your pages load faster

Show your customer what they can look like wearing your product, on product page
Customer persona development - we did not take time to determine our target customer

Too many products for males and later found out that females were a much higher value customer

This holographic style pack is what really supercharged sales in 2016

Top selling SKU right here
Influencers - when I first started I had no idea how much money we were leaving on the table no having influencers

I didn’t understand how expensive running cold traffic was and was not able to quantify the ROI of influencers

Later we got smart and sponsored micro influencers
Presell products - we would invest in inventory and “hope” it would sell

This is stupid looking back, most would sit & we would have to discount to sell it

We should have created landing pages w/ potential new products & only put them into production when a min amount ordered
Pay experienced people to audit our e-comm site - in the beginning its trial & error

I could have saved soo much time and money paying experts to audit our site

Small holes in your game can cost a ton of money & I was blind to a lot of these because my lack of experience
Pay experienced media buyers to come up with your strategy - back then FB ads was relatively easy

We thought we knew it all because we paid a small consulting fee to ad quadrant to set up our ads

Smart to pay experts who are managing multiple ad accounts across different niches
Hire e-comm experts to design and A/B test landing pages

I had no idea how to write a sales page & didn’t understand how powerful social proofing is

I wish I would have had an e-comm expert help us with product organization so customers could find what they are looking for fast
Shopify - an agency sold us on woo commerce

Little did I know it was bc they wanted retainer money to updated plugins monthly

We crashed our server during high traffic & it cost us thousands of dollars

If someone suggest a platform other than Shopify they are stupid
Pay for copywriting audits - copy is so important all the way down your funnel

Tone needs to be cohesive

I didn’t understand this and our ad copy had a different tone than web which had a different tone than our packaging and email communication

This would have paid dividends
Sign up for my email list

My weekly emails break down how I help our brands not make these mistakes that cost me thousands of dollars

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More from @Saint_Dici

Jun 17
Going from $0-$1mm in business is probably the hardest part.

- entire time you feel like everything could fall apart at any moment

- you don’t have much data to base decisions off…so ur flying blind

To survive this phase u need to cap ur downside. Make smart small bets.

1)
In the $0-$1mm phase a lot of people take on way too much overhead and ultimately get KO’d

Why you hear stats that most small businesses fail.

To survive u need to be scrappy. Work out of Starbucks, garage, ur house, etc and be as lean as possible

“Flexing overhead” isn’t cool
$1mm-$5mm

This stage is where u start to build some confidence. Finally in your head you’ve proved haters wrong and you’re starting to figure it out.

Key here is to tighten up IP stuff cause your business is working…and you don’t wana get fked down the road.

2)
Read 8 tweets
May 19, 2023
I started Vibedration when I was 22.…paid for my first order with a credit card

Starting a brand donesn't need to be an overly complicated process...let me show you a few things

~THREAD~ Image
1. most important aspect of starting a brand….is testing concept with small budget

I came up with idea and immediately ran $500 of test ads to a shitty shopify site with 2 products on it

People bought and I sent a message saying I was delayed on production.

Concept proven.
2. Don’t breaking the bank

First order I placed was $5,000 total. $1,500 deposit paid that on credit card.

When I got my first order, I put the packs on ebay, etsy and website.

had product in my garage….was filling orders then dropping off at the post office. Lean and scrappy
Read 6 tweets
Mar 22, 2023
Don’t see much fb ads advice since ios14 purged all quick cash fb scammers

We’re relying a ton on “ASC” and spending $15k a day with a 4x

Here’s a few tips straight from the KC account:
1. Advantage plus or “ASC”

I’ve found that these campaigns do best when you mix creative types.

I tried testing separate campaigns with only single image or video or dpa…shit doesn’t work

Build a campaign with 5-8 creatives…1-2 of each creative type and let it rip
2. ASC testing

You can’t split these campaigns by gender which is pretty wack

So we test unisex creative in male / female broad campaigns every week

We move winners up river into the asc campaign that’s spending $6500 a day

Testing super important w these fukers
Read 5 tweets
Mar 17, 2023
tools to start a 7 figure brand are right in-front of your face

iPhone, computer, Shopify, Alibaba and ur right there

KC is an 8 figure brand and we still get all our suppliers off Alibaba

Here’s a few tips to help you with alibaba: Image
1. First off, the site is not a swap meet. People have this weird thing in their head about the site.

The site provides protection from suppliers scamming you and makes it easy to find good factories
2. Sampling

This is where most people fumble around and get a bad taste in their mouth because of costs

Samples cost money. These factories get hit up all day by jerk offs looking for free samples.

Pay the sample fees and don’t be annoying. They reimburse when u order
Read 6 tweets
Jan 25, 2023
if I started building another e-comm brand today from $0...here's 5 things i'd focus on that could get me to 7 figures quick
1. It’s honestly not as hard as you think to build a lean 7 figure online biz

Your easiest path to start in…is within a niche that you’re apart of. This is your competitive advantage. You know these people...they're u.

Build a product for you / this small niche.
2. Emotional connection.

Connection is everything. Can you donate xyz % of sales? How can you connect with your consumer?

Most brands are "me too" brands...they have similar messaging and products as other brands. Stand out have a authentic connection and its game over
Read 6 tweets
May 2, 2020
People new to e-commerce look for a unicorn problem 2 solve

That’s the hard way

Find a niche that you know & make a product for them

Then when you make new fresh products they’ll come back again & again

Your competitive advantage is KNOWING your niche
This is how you can compete in niches thst are insanely competitive

My first brand I made a product for girls going to music festivals that we’re looking to take cute pics.

I was going up against camelbak...but I knew festivals & partying better than wank execs at Camelbak
You know how to talk to your market. You know what the nuances are.

You know it....cause you live in that world.

Going this route for building a brand 10x easier and way more fun.

I made cash partying around the world with hot chicks lmao
Read 4 tweets

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