PPC investments begin long before a product starts making money. Marketplaces hold sales revenue for weeks before payout.

Online sellers must overcome built-in eCommerce cash flow hurdles, and it requires intention. Here are five ways you can maintain and improve your cash flow.

Track and Forecast Your Cash Flow

Understanding your cash flow is the first step to improving it. The first thing you should know is that cash flow is different from profit.

If you sell on Amazon, you know that sales do not immediately generate money in your bank account. That means sellers often have a hard time understanding their cash flow, even if they have profitable listings.

You need to know when to expect sales to hit your account, when your expenses are due, and where any gaps could put pressure on your business. Cash flow issues can lead even profitable eCommerce businesses to suffer stockouts, late payments to suppliers, and poor performance in peak season.

The best way to prepare is to forecast cash flow as much as possible. Projecting sales and expenses will help you identify months where you may need extra cash.

This allows you to plan for growth and investments in inventory or marketing campaigns. A solid understanding of your cash flow cycle also allows you to better manage any debts or loans you may have.

Don’t Just Plan Plan Product Launches; Plan Successful Launches

Most successful sellers are pretty good at finding addressable markets where they can sell a product. They research the customers, the competition, and the price points that will make them successful. But too often, product launches are underfunded when sellers fail to budget the cash required to maintain momentum.

Again, we return to the lag time between launch, sales, and finally, payout. Whatever you budget for your first order of inventory, a successful launch means you’ll need a second order (and possibly a third) before you start collecting on your sales. Without the available cash, you risk stockouts and production delays that will kill your momentum.

Planning a successful launch means budgeting enough cash to carry momentum beyond the first month. You should be able to pay for (and market) your first three orders of a new product. By the time you need a fourth-order, you’ll have a revenue stream to support your investment.

Write a Budget and Hold Your Business Accountable

One of your most important jobs as an online seller is creating a budget. It should include fixed costs like labor, rent, and utilities as well as variable costs such as marketing expenses, inventory, or materials for product launches. When you’re just starting out, a simple spreadsheet will do the trick.

Annual and quarterly budgets can be flexible. If your business exceeds targets, you can always budget for new investments and growth opportunities. But documenting an initial budget will help you drive accountability for yourself and your business expenses.

Negotiate With Suppliers and Vendors

Negotiating expenses is another great way to improve your eCommerce cash flow. Look for ways to reduce costs without sacrificing product quality or customer service, such as negotiating better rates with suppliers or vendors.

Keep in mind that “better rates” don’t always mean “cheaper rates.” One of the primary cash flow challenges eCommerce businesses face is that expenses are often due before the business gets paid.

One solution is to extend payment terms with your suppliers and vendors. If you can get terms extended from net 30 to net 60 on a large order of inventory, you will already start selling the inventory by the time the payment is due.

This is an improvement for your cash flow, even if your bottom line hasn’t changed at all. This way, you can invest existing cash reserves in growth rather than using them to pay an invoice.

One more option: you could offer to pay your supplier upfront in exchange for a discount. Where do you get the cash to pay upfront? Secure working capital at a cost that’s less than your negotiated discount. Now, you’re saving money and improving cash flow.

Factor in Seasonality

For most businesses, revenue does not form a straight line throughout the year. Neither do expenses. The challenge for eCommerce sellers is that the high expense seasons often precede revenue spikes. The most common example is the race to stock up for the holidays.

Many sellers start ordering during the summer months, knowing they won’t see the sales revenue until December or January. Without a budget and a plan, this will create a major cash flow strain.

Have a plan for how you will maximize your ability to invest in growth when demand is high, and a few ways to do that:

Use funding to order seasonal inventory and to restock it after Black Friday, if necessary.

Communicate your needs with suppliers in advance, and negotiate for the best possible payment terms for your business.

Trim your expenses during the lean sales months as much as possible. Reduce spend on marketing campaigns, software subscriptions, and labor to be sure you have as much cash as possible for inventory when you need it.

Most sellers focus primarily on their top line. While revenue is required for growth, the true health of your eCommerce business depends on cash flow. By following these tips, you can ensure your eCommerce business has a healthy cash flow and remains profitable.

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About the Author:

Viably is an eCommerce funding software to help sellers extend their cash flow. It includes free financial management tools like business banking and cash flow forecasting.

Many industries are beginning to wake up to its powers, and the eCommerce sector is no exception. From improving your customer relationship management to working out how best to price your products, AI could help you revolutionize your online business.

What is AI?

AI involves using algorithms and machine learning to enhance and automate tasks that humans may find time-consuming, complicated, or tedious. Once an algorithm has been programmed to perform a task, it can learn on the job and improve its performance and efficiency.

Over the past few years, AI has become increasingly common in the eCommerce industry. Online retailers like Amazon have used it to enhance many aspects of their operations, from introducing customer-service chatbots to fully automating warehouses. According to one study, 35% of Amazon’s sales now come from its AI-powered recommendation software.

The potential for AI to be used in eCommerce is so promising that another recent study indicated that 85% of online customer interactions could now be taken care of without a single human having to get involved. 

It seems likely, then, that in the not-so-distant future, your company’s AI sales could be greater than those of your human sales team. If you’re still not convinced, below are just a few of the ways AI is causing a revolution in the eCommerce industry.

How AI is revolutionizing eCommerce

The efficiency and power of AI algorithms have grown dramatically over the last few years, and this trend is reflected in the growth of the AI software market. 

As a result, AI has infiltrated almost every area of the eCommerce industry, from customer service to software development. 

Customer service

Chances are that if you’ve ever bought anything online and had to chase it up, return it, or request a refund, you’ve already encountered AI customer service. These systems are becoming so sophisticated you may not even have realized.

The most common way to combine AI and customer service is the automated chatbot. These are algorithms designed to respond to customer inquiries and help find appropriate solutions. They’re available to customers 24/7 and can provide almost-instant responses to a range of queries, such as “when will my order be delivered?” and “how can I get a refund?”.

Chatbots can help businesses cut costs and automate some of the more repetitive and tedious customer service tasks. That being said, the abilities of many chatbots are still quite limited. Even the most sophisticated algorithms may not be able to deal with the often chaotic and unpredictable nature of a disgruntled customer.

So, can AI help with more difficult customer service encounters? You bet it can! Natural language processing (NLP) is a technique that allows AI to support and augment customer service departments without replacing the human workforce. NLP can transcribe phone calls in real-time and keep an eye out for keywords such as “frustrating”, “cancel”, or “disappointed” to alert managers to complaints that might need their direct attention.

In this way, using AI to supplement your customer service team, rather than replace it entirely, may be the best way forward for your online business. But whatever route you take, you can be sure AI is likely to play a big role in the future.

Data management

In the world of eCommerce, data management is paramount. Unfortunately, it can be a complicated, time-consuming, and error-prone task when performed by humans. Using AI algorithms to manage data collection and analysis can help online businesses run much more efficiently.

Collecting and analyzing data on customer behavior allows eCommerce retailers to gain a better understanding of their customers. Knowing when, where, how, and why they shop helps target them more effectively and increases the likelihood of them buying products from your online store.

Using AI to manage this can help businesses analyze much larger pools of data and avoid errors that might be made by humans. It’s algorithms like these that have allowed eCommerce giants like Amazon to become as successful as they are. For example, Amazon uses AI to track its customers’ behavior and then recommends products based on this, which they often buy.

AI data algorithms can also help target advertising and market more effectively. By tracking which adverts your customers tend to click on and understanding the type of branding they trust, they can create personalized advertising for each individual. This could revolutionize the marketing strategies for SaaS companies, online retailers, and many others in the eCommerce industry.

Predictive AI algorithms like this are only likely to become more prevalent as an increasing number of businesses utilize 5G. Its impressive speed and power will allow data processing to be performed on a much larger scale and enable companies to employ ever more complex algorithms.

Repricing

As an eCommerce retailer, selling your products at the right price can make all the difference when it comes to outdoing competitors. As the online sphere continues to grow, this is only going to get more intense. It’s therefore vital you sell your products at a competitive price, but with prices constantly in flux, staying on top of this can be difficult.

Luckily, AI repricing systems can help you stay ahead of rivals and ensure you’re consistently competitive. By monitoring the online marketplace, these algorithms will keep tabs on your competitors and adjust your prices automatically.

This can save a lot of time and effort, as well as ensure you’re always maximizing profits. Using an AI repricing algorithm also makes sure you avoid pricing glitches that can be devastating to sales targets. 

A pricing glitch occurs when the price of a product is set too low either because of an error in calculation or manual inputting. AI repricing systems ensure these glitches become a thing of the past.  

Internal communications

In the eCommerce industry, communicating with your team is vital to keep operations running smoothly. This is particularly true in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic when many traditional communication channels were cut off. 

However, with the rise of countless remote communication platforms, apps, and gadgets, internal communications can often become convoluted, glitchy, and frustrating.

Thankfully, this is another area in which AI is revolutionizing the industry, and business communication software can be enhanced through AI algorithms. This software can, for example, transcribe phone calls and video conferences, allowing you to keep a record of important internal communications like meetings and reviews.

AI-assisted internal communications can thus make your team more efficient and help your business move forward in the right direction.

Software development

As an online company, ensuring the software you use is working efficiently and smoothly is crucial. After all, the success of your websites, ordering systems, communications, and just about every other aspect of your business relies on having appropriate and dependable software.

Unfortunately, designing and maintaining these websites and systems can be a tedious and time-consuming job. Encouragingly, though, the prevalence of AI software development kits (SDKs) is likely to increase dramatically over the coming years. These automated tools will allow developers to focus on more complex tasks while they take on routine bug fixes and mundane coding reviews.

It’s even possible to get AI to design your whole website, a task that usually requires a lot of time, effort, and planning to achieve. For example, Wix ADI uses AI to create unique websites in a matter of minutes, which often seem to outperform websites made by humans.

AI could even influence the domains companies use for their websites. As the prevalence of artificial intelligence spreads throughout the eCommerce industry, more companies are starting to use AI domains. 

If you’re looking for an AI domain definition, “.ai” is the country code for websites based on the Caribbean island of Anguilla. Recently, however, technology and IT companies have started to buy AI domain names for their websites. 

As well as signifying to customers you’re in the tech industry, .ai domains can be great for your company’s SEO, offer value for money, and, as this is a relatively new trend, there’s a wide variety of names still available.

The revolution will be automated

The extensive list of uses for AI in the eCommerce industry goes on and on. In addition to those mentioned above, it can also help businesses automate their inventory management, tackle fake reviews, and weed out counterfeit products.  

Implementing AI algorithms into your strategies is likely to save you time, cut costs, improve efficiency, and relieve you of countless mundane and tedious tasks. Having said that, some more nuanced jobs, such as customer service and relationship management, may still benefit from a human touch.

To ensure your eCommerce business remains competitive, it’s important to understand how AI is changing things in your industry. Recognizing the potential of AI will allow you to make optimal decisions on how best to integrate it into your operations. 

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About the Author:

Jenna Bunnell is the Senior Manager for Content Marketing at Dialpad, an AI-incorporated cloud-hosted unified communications system that provides valuable call details for business owners and sales representatives. She is driven and passionate about communicating a brand’s design sensibility and visualizing how content can be presented in creative and comprehensive ways. Jenna has written for such domains as Shift4Shop and FlippingBook. Check out her LinkedIn profile.

So rather than write about what is working today, this article will focus on the enduring principles that never change and will always be the foundation of a successful eCommerce business. Once you understand these fundamental principles, strategies for achieving them will become much more apparent.

1. Create a great product
2. Generate broad visibility for your product
3. Build a scalable CaC to NSV ratio

Create a Great Product 

The days of selling generic products and generating significant profits are long behind us. Online shopping, whether on the marketplaces or independent websites has become so saturated and competitive, there is little opportunity to build a financially viable business selling undifferentiated products.

So if you start with the understanding that your product needs to be unique and provide some value to users that others don’t, you’re on the right track. Designing a unique product doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be patented (although that helps). 

Unique may also mean a product that supports a social good cause, has an attractive or functional design, or has some other proprietary features.

Creating a truly unique and valuable product is like hiring a team of salespeople but without the expense. Great products eventually start to sell themselves through rave reviews, word of mouth, and earned press. 

On the other hand, generic or poorly designed products need to be constantly propped up. Aggressively pursuing positive reviews, pleading with users to remove negative reviews and managing returns are an anchor that always weighs on low quality and generic products.

Designing a new product may seem like a daunting task, and you may be tempted to pursue the route of reselling cheap generic products from Alibaba, but in reality it’s easier than it seems. 

If you’ve narrowed it down to a specific product category or even a specific product that you’re interested in developing, start by reading the negative reviews posted about similar products. You’ll quickly notice that many of the same complaints appear. This is a great starting point. 

A product’s value is its ability to solve a problem.  And while that may sound overly complicated for a basic, everyday item, think about the coffee cup example. A coffee cup needs to have a handle to prevent burns. 

If you’re taking your coffee to go, it’s best if it has insulation to keep it warm longer, and a top to prevent spills. Read through the comments on a popular coffee cup on Amazon and you’ll see designing a coffee cup with a better lid might be just what customers want. That’s providing value!

Image Source: Amazon.com

Generate Broad Visibility

The “build it and they will come mentality” is unfortunately not a winning strategy. All products need visibility to get traction, and that visibility is never free. Whether selling on a marketplace or your own website, traffic (aka visibility) is purchased through advertising, influencers, affiliates, or one of many other pay-to-play models.

The best practices for generating visibility for a product or brand line are constantly changing, but you should always be closely monitoring ROI on advertising or other promotional channels. 

While setting up a system to reliable track and attribute results may be burdensome to initially set up, they allow you to quickly focus your efforts and expenditure on the best performing channels. 

Since most small businesses have tight budgets, particularly during the startup phase, it is critically important to establish a scalable ROI (more on that in the next section) 

Moreover, if you do a great job creating a high-quality product that provides value to users, this step becomes much, much easier. Great products convert at higher rates, making more advertising channels viable. 

Once you reach critical sales velocity, your high-quality product will start generating referrals and maybe even earned media, which further accelerates sales at no additional cost.

Build a scalable CaC to Net Sale Value ratio

By now you’ve successfully developed a great product. The unique value of your product is successfully conveyed through your advertising campaigns. Your product is naturally generating lots of positive reviews, there are few returns and users are sharing your product with friends and family. You’re off to a great start, but now it’s time to put things into overdrive.

CaC (Customer Acquisition Cost)  is simply the amount you spend to acquire a new customer. If you spend $100 in advertising to acquire 10 new customers, your customer acquisition cost is $10. By implementing a reliable attribution system as described in the previous section, you can determine your CaC with relatively high confidence.

Continuing with the above example:

Product landed cost is $20 (includes cost of goods + shipping to your warehouse). 

Customer Acquisition Cost $10

______________________

Total cost to make a sale: $30

Now let’s say your product sells for $50 and it costs you $30 in manufacturing, material, and advertising cost to get to that sale. Congratulations, you netted a profit of $20!

So you’ve spent $10 to generate a sale with a net profit of $20. Now it’s time to scale those numbers. Presumably, you could spend $1,000 in advertising to generate $2,000 in net profit. 

Or what if you could spend $1,000,000 in advertising to generate $2,000,000 in net profit! At some level of customer acquisition investment the ROI starts to deteriorate, so there is some limit to this, but nevertheless, it is critical to establish a scalable ROI.

Conclusion

These three fundamental principles are interrelated and make the next subsequent phase of business development easier to achieve. Starting with a great product is a must, and finding an opportunity to provide new and unique value is as easy as reading common complaints about existing products. 

Generating visibility and traction for a product always comes at some cost, but you greatly decrease this cost by designing a product that solves a common problem. Moreover, this investment will be temporary if your products achieve a market fit, which only happens if your product is unique and valuable.

You can quickly scale your profits if you closely monitor your customer acquisition cost and know your net sale proceeds. If it costs less in ad spend than you net on each sale, you’re on the verge of big profits. 

Start by doubling or tripling your ad spend. If the ratio of CAC: NSV holds steady, increase your ad spend by 100X and you’ll 100X your net profit!

Remember best practices and viable ad strategies are constantly changing, but shoppers will always be seeking great products and it’s your job to create them and make sure those shoppers can find you!

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About the Author:

Brendon Fields is the founder of Rebaid.com a promotions platform that helps small and medium size businesses launch new products, liquidate excess inventory and facilitate connections with relevant influencers. Brendon has been an Amazon seller since 2013 and owned multiple eCommerce native brands with combined revenues exceeding $20MM.

In order to keep up with the trend and the updates being introduced into the eCommerce industry, analytics serves as an important online marketing tool that helps improve the decision making of business owners by providing suitable recommendations based on relevant data. This in turn advances the overall user experience and increases conversion in the process. 

What is Brand Analytics in Amazon?  

As previously mentioned, eCommerce analytics is crucial in guiding business owners with their eCommerce endeavors. For that matter, Amazon has developed its own analytics tool to help sellers who are selling their own brands on Amazon. 

Amazon brand analytics is an exclusive tool available for sellers who meet specific criteria defined in the Amazon Brand Registry. Brand owners benefit from Amazon brand analytics mainly because of the insight it provides to help brand owners arrive at a reasoned decision, move fast, grow their business, and ultimately succeed on Amazon.  

With the help of Amazon brand analytics, brand owners will be given an overview of important stages of the business, including Purchase, Consideration & Evaluation, and the Awareness & Discovery stage of the marketplace transaction. All of these business factors can be deduced through distinct reports found on the Amazon brand analytics interface. 

Important Amazon Brand Analytics Reports    

Amazon brand analytics provides insights to brand owners through reports, which you can explore below: 

Amazon Search Terms Report

For brand owners wanting to know feedback from customers (in aggregate) about their products, as well as the products’ of their competitors, the Amazon Search Terms Report will be helpful. Similarly, if you want to know the product’s relative search popularity, its click share, and conversion share, this feature will be helpful. 

With the help of Amazon Search Terms Report, it’s easier for Amazon sellers to check which products Amazon buyers are clicking after search results of a particular search term are displayed. Brand owners may also use this eCommerce analytics feature to check for a product and see which particular terms are driving online shoppers to click on that particular product. 

Search frequency rank is also showcased in the report, in a way serving as Amazon search analytics. Since it somehow functions as Amazon search analytics, numeric ranking is showcased, indicating how popular a specific search keyword or term is as compared to all other search terms in a given time period.

Demographics Report

In brief, the Demographics Reports show Amazon brand owners the breakdown of their buyers according to categorized information, including the age, household income, education, gender, and marital status of the Amazon customers. 

The information provided on the demographics report can be utilized by brand owners to increase the success rate of their targeted marketing campaigns. Consequently, this will also lead Amazon brand owners to create product portfolio decisions according to how successful a product is in a specific demographic.

Item Comparison Report

The item comparison report contains the top five products most frequently viewed by Amazon shoppers on the same day as the Rights Owners’ products. This gives Rights Owners a view of the current marketplace competition with respect to competing products. Hence, allowing them to create better product portfolios and advertising approaches. 

Alternate Purchase Report

This is another Amazon brand analytics report that can be used by brand owners to identify which particular product Amazon shoppers (in aggregate) frequently purchased, but decided to purchase from a different Amazon seller instead of purchasing it from the Amazon brand owner. 

With the Alternate Purchase report showing the top 5 products most frequently purchased instead of the brand owner’s products, it’s easier for brand owners to create a new product portfolio. Thus, offering a product differentiation opportunity for the brand owner. 

Market Basket Report

In contrast to the Alternate Purchase Report of Amazon brand analytics, the Market Basket Report showcases which Amazon product shoppers frequently purchase along with the Brand Owners’ products. In sense, this serves as Amazon product analytics. This particular Amazon product analytics report showcases the top 3 products that are purchased with the Brand Owner’s own product during the reporting range selected by the user.

Market Basket Report is a crucial insight to give Amazon sellers an idea as to which items they could bundle with their current Amazon brands. Hence, providing bundling and cross-marketing opportunities for the brand owner. 

Repeat Purchase Behavior Report

This report is another unique feature of the Amazon brand analytics that lets brand owners see the number of orders they receive in a specified timeframe for their brands or products, as well as the number of unique customers who made the orders. 

By means of comparison of the number of unique customers and the number of orders made within a particular time frame, brand owners can identify products or brands that have been ordered more than once per customer.

Alternative eCommerce Analytics Options

Admittedly, the majority of third-party merchants on Amazon are not brand owners. Hence, they would be lacking access to the information retrieved from the brand analytics.

With that in mind, there are third-party tools that serve as Amazon seller analytics to still help Amazon sellers track all their Amazon sales data in real-time. Thus, providing Amazon sellers better insight about their selling activities and essential cost-saving strategies that will potentially lead to more profit. 

Apart from serving mainly as sales analytics, there are also unique Amazon seller tools, like Amazon repricers, that incorporate analytics into their software. 

Seller Snap, for example, offers Amazon seller analytics that provides insight on how well Amazon products are selling, inventory data and status, Amazon Buy Box price, Buy Box share, and much more. Thus, making Amazon seller analytics a crucial feature of any repricer. 

Analytics for Better Execution

If you wish to have a better understanding of your business, be it on Amazon or other online selling platforms, having access to eCommerce analytics tools is a must. Whether it is for sales, reviews, or other aspects of your business, transaction data will definitely help sellers and other active eCommerce participants create a better business execution. 

Indeed, we cannot deny the importance of learning from eCommerce influencers. The fact that their names appear online signifies that they are authority figures in their respective niches. They’ve been through important experiences, and from these, gained substantial knowledge, skills, and wisdom that can and will help you bolster your eCommerce dream.

But, while there are a lot of self-proclaimed influencers out there, it’s imperative to choose wisely when deciding who to follow.

In this article, we’ll review some of the top recognized experts in the ever-growing eCommerce industry who represent various niches.

Richard Lazazzera(A Better Lemonade Stand)

Richard Lazazzera is the proud founder of A Better Lemonade Stand. Oops, don’t think of lemons here. A Better Lemonade Stand is an online incubator that empowers and assists thousands of eCommerce business owners towards achieving sustained success in their ventures.

Richard began his career as marketing personnel and later ventured into the eCommerce business. With his marketing background, Richard started A Better Lemonade Stand as a platform to communicate best practices, tricks, and tips that he learned as he was building his businesses. It also aims to empower prospective individuals to become eCommerce entrepreneurs following a framework that he tested and succeeded with.

While doing that, he collaborated with Shopify and helped them to achieve over 200,000 merchants from a 60,000 benchmark. Partly thanks to him, Shopify is now the king of eCommerce platforms, and it continues to grow at lightning speed.

In 2015, Richard resigned from Shopify to fully commit to A Better Lemonade Stand in his pursuit to help eCommerce sellers grow.

Mike Jackness(EcomCrew)

Mike Jackness founded EcomCrew along with his partner Dave Bryant. EcomCrew is an online platform providing resources, such as blogs, podcasts, and premium memberships for aspiring and established eCommerce entrepreneurs.

Since 2004, Mike has worked in online marketing and developed intensive experience in affiliate programs. He then launched his own eCommerce business via Treadmill.com. During his first years, he surprisingly sold products worth over $1 million.

In 2014, he sold his first eCommerce venture and began several eCommerce brands with a consolidated annual revenue of over $7 million. His businesses continue to grow, and he has become an acclaimed model for many aspiring eCommerce geeks.

Through EcomCrew, Mike shares invaluable lessons, drawing from his own experiences in eCommerce.

Justine Gener (Cener Ecommerce Mastermind)

For sure, you’re a member of one or two Facebook groups, and for all you know, these most likely suck. Yes, most groups nowadays have severely deficient engagement and unsustainable page views. But that is simply not the case with Cener Ecommerce Mastermind.

Justine Gener is a full-time eCommerce entrepreneur, an eCommerce coach and consultant, and the brilliant mind behind the Cener Ecommerce Mastermind. It is a private Facebook group on how one can start and earn via a Shopify store. Today, it has over 50,000 members who are actively engaging in the group. His reach continues to grow as the mastermind expands with the growth of the eCommerce industry.

Most of the resources Justine shares in the group focus on the print-on-demands eCommerce business model. He willingly discloses everything from scratch, from the methods, tools and product ideas he uses, to designing a Shopify store, as well as Facebook advertising.

Austin Brawner(Ecommerce Influence)

Austine Brawner hosts the Ecommerce Influence podcast, a leading resource provider for both neophytes and advanced. The podcast reaches thousands every month and has become a source of inspiration for those who aspire to achieve financial freedom through eCommerce.

Throughout the podcast, Austin interviews many successful entrepreneurs representing various backgrounds, struggles, and success stories. Because of these diverse eCommerce personalities, anybody can relate to the viewpoints being shared. Whether you are lost on how to kick off an eCommerce project, or struggle with maintaining growth, this podcast is the one for you.

The podcast also covers various articles on relevant topics such as email marketing, search engine optimization, and productivity hacks for eCommerce entrepreneurs. It’s your one-stop-shop for the essential information you need towards building a profitable eCommerce business.

With the growth of his audience and influence, Austin has also worked with premium brands such as Kettle and Fire, MVMT, and Four Sigmatic. Moreover, he runs another successful venture called Brand Growth Experts.

Gretta Van Riel (Hey Influencers)

In one of your searches, you must have come across Skinny Me Tea.

Founded in 2012, Skinny Me Tea is the world’s first “teatox” brand that has sold over 11 million cups of tea worldwide in just five years. Pretty impressive, right?

Gretta van Riel is the brilliant woman behind this very successful venture. With her first business ever-growing, she then expanded into building other profitable brands such as The 5th Watches and Drop Battle.

Gretta is a prominent figure in social media marketing. On Instagram alone, she has a total of over 16 million dedicated followers.

Alaa Hassan(Ecommerce Training Academy)

Why do you want to gain financial freedom through eCommerce? Are you passionate about the industry? Do you have this insatiable belief that it works and it opens up vast opportunities for growth?

Well, ask Alaa Hassan such questions, and you’ll get a resounding, “Yes”. Among the influencers out there, Alaa seems to be genuinely excited by the eCommerce industry.

This desire pushed Alaa to start the Ecommerce Training Academy, an online platform offering content, courses, webinars, and other resources related to eCommerce topics.

Alaa mentors over 30 eCommerce entrepreneurs worldwide and has been invited as a keynote speaker to multiple events and conferences. Alaa ensures that all of his students are given the keys to success, proving them with the tools and skills to build sustainable eCommerce enterprises.

Drew Sanocki(Nerd Marketing)

Sure. There are starter or even advanced sellers who require a step-by-step approach for them to learn the industry and accomplish desired results. If you’re one of them, don’t worry. Drew Sanocki has your back.

Drew started Nerd Marketing and hosts the Nerd Marketing podcast, in which he reveals the different facets around the eCommerce industry. He’s got it all covered. From how to open and design a Shopify store, to scaling up profits through targeted Facebook marketing.

Before engaging in that, Drew launched DesignPublic.com and turned it into one of the best online design retailers. In 2011, he sold the venture and turned to marketing to boost other businesses, including brands such as SaaS company, Teamwork.com and Karmaloop.com.

Anton Kraly(Ecommerce Lifestyle)

Anton Kraly runs and hosts the Ecommerce Lifestyle podcast, a rapidly growing resource that has gained traction, especially among employed professionals.

Unlike most eCommerce blogs and podcasts, Anton’s goal with Ecommerce Lifestyle is to help his audience achieve financial freedom through online entrepreneurship.

For the past 12 years, Anton has engaged with various eCommerce businesses. His specific mission is to establish and optimize growth systems that boost businesses, whilst keeping them streamlined. That’s eCommerce efficiency at its finest.

Corey Ferreira (Shopify)

No doubt. Shopify dominates the web when it comes to references for eCommerce blogs and compilations of related resources. Almost every eCommerce-related keyword you type in search engines will reflect resources from Shopify. Shopify ranks first for numerous pages and posts in eCommerce.

One of the core teams who brought Shopify the huge success that we see today is Corey Ferreira. He’s one of the best eCommerce influencers you should follow, especially if you want to learn pioneering strategies.

Corey has written countless publications and hosted various online training on Shopify, Social Media Explorer, and Entrepreneur. And it does not stop there. Major publications have also featured him.

Ezra Firestone(Smart Marketer)

Ezra Firestone founded Smart Marketer and now serves as its CEO. Smart Marketer is an online platform providing both free and premium resources to guide you in creating a profitable eCommerce business while maintaining a balanced lifestyle as an entrepreneur.

Before that, Ezra launched his first online venture called My Costume Wigs, as a side hustle. Drawing lessons and skills from that, he then started his second and most successful eCommerce brand called BOOM!

With his growing business, Ezra began networking with fellow eCommerce entrepreneurs and marketers. In 2013, he co-founded Smart Marketer to serve as a platform in sharing valuable insights about the eCommerce industry.

So there you have it! Learn the best practices from these eCommerce influencers.

Image Source: Amazon

Customer Acquisition Cost

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) refers to the amount of money it costs to gain a new customer. The average CAC varies depending on the industry you’re in; the travel industry sees the lowest CAC, while tech tends to see the highest.

How to Work Out Your Customer Acquisition Cost

To work out your CAC, divide the number of customers you have by the total amount you’ve spent on marketing and sales. This will include money spent on campaigns, paid advertising, content, tools, and anything else that has fueled your marketing.

For example, if you’ve spent $15,000 on sales and marketing this month and have converted 100 customers the sum would be 15,000 / 100, giving you a CAC of $150.

This is a no-brainer but, to make a profit, your CAC needs to be lower than the average amount your customers spend.

It’s also helpful to know the CAC per marketing or sales tactic (this is also known as revenue by traffic type). For example, if you regularly run Facebook Ads, it’s important to track the CAC just for that activity.

How to Leverage Results to Get More Sales

Optimize Your Marketing Activities

Not all marketing activities are created equal. Some will work better than others and there will be a few that emerge as the frontrunners for the lowest possible CAC.

It’s important to dig into the data you have to determine the key channels your customers find you through. The ones that aren’t performing well can be scrapped or retweaked if you think there’s potential there.