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Why I Bought the Site

I recently had an Amazon scare. I should probably do a blog post all about what happened and how I’m dealing with it, but I’ll see what the results are before I go into depth on it. The result of the scare was that I imagined what it would be like to free up some time from Amazon completely and what I would fill it up with.

A logical choice would be to just spend more time working on domain investing, but I decided that I would much rather own another physical product-based asset. It’s more tangible and a lot easier to explain to people, so I decided that it was the best course of action. I just needed something that would give me a little cashflow and I would know how to improve to increase its sales.

I browse Flippa.com regularly looking for inspiration and for potential opportunities. Now was the time that I needed to become a buyer and capture something that ticked all the boxes. After a couple of good ones passed me buy (for which I was willing to go up to $20,000 to secure them) I decided to start small with a site that was listed at $3,000 in auction, had a $4,000 reserve and had a $5,000 buy it now price.

There weren’t any bids until the last couple of days and rather than fighting it out at auction, I just pulled the trigger within the last hour (spending about £3,800 in total, including the Escrow fees). It was a simple process and makes me confident that if I see another legitimate buy it now opportunity on there, I’ll crack on with it.

What Made the Site a Good Candidate for Me?

I was looking for something that was:

  • Ecommerce
  • Shopify
  • Dropshipping
  • Under $20,000
  • Made at least $300 turnover per month
  • Primary US audience

With that as a foundation, the rest was a case of looking for websites that required a simple facelift (with a new theme and graphics). I also preferred one with a limited product range (preferably under 30). This was just had 5 products, so was ideal.

What really convinced me about this particular one was its SEO potential. It was ranking #4 for a term that got 2,900 US searches per month (around double that globally) and all of its competitors had low quality links from coupon sites, so I could easily outrank them with some tactical link acquisitions. It also uses an exact match domain, so has a lot of credibility in the search results.

While the number of searches isn’t massive, the main phrase and the related ones suggested that most people that landed on the site were very much ready to convert. I just needed to have a site that would convince them to do so.

Website traffic suggested that SEO was where the traffic was coming from. Although it did have social accounts, they weren’t particularly well managed and it’s unlikely to be responsible for many of the conversions.

The main product is a women’s fashion accessory and I found that there were at least 8 others suppliers on AliExpress willing to sell the product.

Questions I Asked Before the Sale

The listing mentioned 12 months of sales up to April. The auction was ending in June, so I needed to know whether the sales were stable or not. The owner showed me the stats and convinced me that things have continued on in the expected way, and that traffic and sales are stable.

In the listing there was no mention of whether or not the social accounts would be included in the sale. Although I didn’t plan to use them especially frequently, I needed them to add credibility to the site. The exact match handles are great and the fact that they do have a following makes it a lot easier to convince potential buyers that we can be trusted. Again, it was just a matter of asking and confirming that they would be coming my way once I’d paid for the site.

Traffic sources aren’t always reliable when website owners use subpar analytics software for their data. For that reason, it wasn’t quite clear whether or not they had used any forms of paid marketing to get people to the site. I needed to know whether or not they were relying on things like Instagram influencers, Google Ads or Facebook Ads to get people to the site. They weren’t, meaning I don’t need to dedicate much time to its upkeep and that I’ve got the chance to explore those channels in the future.

What Work Needed Doing for It?

Before I pulled the trigger and made the purchase, I went through all of the quick wins and more complex things that I know I can do to get this site working at its optimum. These were the main opportunities I saw:

  • Branding. The website theme needed modernising and customising, so it didn’t look like it was a bland template. I commissioned a logo on Fiverr and hated it. The experience inspired me to just make my own (much better one) on Canva.
  • Fix imagery. All of the images were from the manufacturer and my competitor uses the same images. I found unused imagery and edited them, so we wouldn’t have that issue again.
  • Add content. The homepage copy needed fixing. I needed an FAQs page. All the text needed redoing, so I gradually worked my way through it all.
  • Features/benefits. I love a copywriting challenge and had fun going to work on each of the product pages, so I could convert customers easier.
  • Fix product variations. They weren’t configured correctly on some of the products, so I made sure that they were and that they were all priced closer to the competitors’ (which were 40% more expensive than on my site).
  • Get testimonials. My product is great because it’s an invisible accessory, so I could source images that look like people are using it (whether or not they are) and make a nice testimonial to go along with them.
  • Fix the title tags. No effort was put into the H1s across the site and it’s amazing that it ranked as well as it did without my alterations.
  • Build authority. The site needs links. I have and have access to some sites that can link to them logically, and I know lots of other relevant website owners that can assist with this too.

How is it Going So Far?

Smooth. The seller was very responsive and helpful when it came to the transaction of the assets. (Social accounts are a proper effort to swap when 2-factor authentication is involved with people in different countries). The day of the switchover had one sale and a couple more came that week. Although it seemed to slow at first, the sales are at the rate that the listing said.

I gave myself a week to do all of the necessary changes and turned it around in around four spurts of half days. Once I got myself in the right mindset – figuring out the target customer and their desires – it was just a case of building things out step by step.

I’ve got access to a number of fashion-focused sites, plus some other authoritative ones that cover much more broad topics, so I’ve published and scheduled content to strengthen the authority of the site and hopefully help it gradually outrank its main competitors.

Something that the previous owner overlooked was that the main products are intimates, so the existing refund policy of “No hassle returns” was far too generous. I could easily reduce returns by mentioning that only unused ones are eligible for returns.

The plan is to hold the site for 12-15 months and then list it for sale. I want to get it up to its maximum capacity, but I recognise that the products are trending downwards, so it’s likely that sales will fall along with the search volume. So long as I’m able to increase the traffic, the sales will come with it. If my changes outperform expectations, I may be able to afford to explore paid social and paid search too.

An alternative plan that I may consider is making a private label product, but I’ll think about that next year.

Chiino
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