So I started my online business with Shopify around February 2014. I was introduced to it by a friend and I found it extremely easy to use. It had no coding background at all and was addictive. I previously had a WordPress website. But it was so ugly that I had to find ways to add the PayPal button to collect payments online. So when I discovered that Shopify has online checkout and checkout capabilities, I was hooked. I never looked back.

Shopify made it easy for me to integrate essentials like Google Analytics and download apps to augment features easily. So if you’re thinking of starting an online store, use Shopify. I keep it.

2013

Moving on, my first year at Shopify and to be honest it was bad. I was paying $40-50 a month without a sale. For the whole year! Sight:

At that time, I was still young and, fortunately, I did not have much commitment. So I looked at it as a hobby and enjoyed having a fully functioning website, even though I had no sales. I got emails from time to time, but nothing concrete.

2014

Then came 2014 and strangely more and more companies have an online store due to government grants like PIC. That really helped boost confidence in online shopping. Also, my products were quite niche, so I didn’t have much competition. I started getting more emails and more calls. My phone was ringing off the hook! I wondered why. I searched for keywords online and was surprised to see that the site was in the top 3 organic for most keywords that describe the site. In 2013, it was on page 100. I read somewhere before that if you want to hide a dead body, bury it on page 2 because no one will find it. And now I’m on the first page and in the top 3! Look at my sales in 2014:

I never imagined that my sales would skyrocket like this. I was excited.

2015

I went full time on the site. I went to courses to help increase site traffic. Basically tons of books and YouTube videos to learn how to be a better online marketer. I started trading abroad and started selling more and more. 2015 was a breakthrough for me because I felt like I really got into the online scene.

I almost tripled my sales! There is no going back now.

2016

I felt like an online guru! I thought about starting an educational center to share my knowledge. I wanted to make more money by helping people create an online store like mine. So I started and strangely my strategy didn’t work well with most of my “students”. I couldn’t explain why. So I stopped. I felt like a scammer. To this day, I still don’t know why. I think it was the first year of uninterrupted website tweaking despite no sales that helped the site get to the first organic page. So no matter what other people say, ad traffic will never compare to organic traffic. You can never get a shortcut, even if you pay for traffic. There are more elements to making an online sale and even more to having consistent online sales. Anyway, 2016 was another big year for me as more and more people shop online.

It was time for him to take the next step. fighting the big boys

2017

I always knew I had to innovate. The market was increasingly congested. My competition was no longer the local SMEs. Amazon, Taobao, Qoo10, Lazada and many more were the go-to places for online shoppers. They were offering much more products, much better prices, and had all kinds of loyalty programs. I needed to be better, otherwise I have to start looking for another job. I started creating a video for every product or service I sold. Of course, I had to keep my loyal customers, so I introduced my own loyalty program. While he knew he couldn’t compete with the big internationals, there was a gap in the market for high-end consumers who prefer big-name brands. I had to conquer this market. So, the products that I brought later were from well-known brands. I also focused on services. All kinds of ways to differentiate the site from the main ones. I didn’t do too bad in 2017.

Despite strong competition, I managed to maintain my sales. Although the days of crazy year-over-year increases are over, I firmly believe that the market for online shoppers will continue to grow. Hopefully there will be a better performance in 2018.