Stolen Advice regarding Personalised Products

As seen on Facebook as a responsd to someone's general question.

"No specific recommendations, here’s why....

If I was going into a crowded niche I wouldn’t want to do what everyone else was doing. Sometimes we fall into traps of creating stores that feature nearly identical product lines as other stores because of it worked for them, it will work for us.

The problem is, there are hundreds of stores that sell products for dogs.

Personalization is one way to stand out from the crowd, but there are still plenty of stores that do that.

So instead of focusing on which company to use, I would encourage you to brainstorm all the items you want to sell. 

After you have a list of products look for the suppliers, order samples of the same personalized bowl from two companies and decide if they are the same quality or if one is better, evaluate pricing. Use your samples as giveaways OR for your own photography.

Sometimes when you pick a company people have a tendency to select from only what they do and don’t look beyond for the gaps in what’s already out there. 

If 10 stores all sell personalized dog collars you have more competition than if you are the only store that sells personalized ___________.

In addition to looking for options to create certain products, don’t be afraid to go through the entire catalog for a company.

You may find items that make a great complementary product or could be a good up sell .... if you sell personalized dog bowls, what about a placemat? Or wall art? ... these aren’t items exclusive to personalized dog products, but if done right could help increase your average order value ... more money for you. Just be sure what you select fits your brand and audience.

I definitely understand wanting to get recommendations, but the other reason I encourage you to order samples, is to test your own design files, print quality, supplier packaging, etc.

Ordering samples has saved my butt a few times with design file issues and positioning of items.

So definitely use the recommendations as a starting point to further research. But know that everyone has their own expectations of what quality looks like, or how fast production should be and it might be really different from yours.

Best of luck!

Feeds and other Things

After Almost a year in business, and a very lax approach to systems and processes, ive been a busy bee lately

I thought it might be useful to tell you what ive been doing, maybe daily maybe not. We will see. Here is installment number 1.

It helps heaps to re-explain something when you are learning, so this is really helpful for me too !

Today ive have been working on and learning about - 

• Shopify Product Feeds. 
• Integration of Xero with Shopify 
• Facebook Product Catalogs and Best Practices 
• Reinstalling Consistent Cart 
• Wrangling with Google Workspace

Fun Stuff

• Playing with Photoshop Text Effects (3D PaperCut mainly)
• Making 3D Wall Murals to sell
• Downloading Premium (pirated) Themes hehe.. 
• Setting up a new website - day 1
• Domain shopping and Logo Making

I will talk a bit about feeds! 

(background - a Product Feed is sent to Facebook, Google, Pinterest and Instagram for your Insta & Facebook Shop/Google Shopping /Pinterest Rich Pins-as well as feeding your Facebook Catalog, Pixel Data, and Conversion Data) 

Im currently Suspended from having a Google Merchant Account due to Misrepresentation - something that sounds Worse than it is.) 

I've discovered that this Could be because ive left the H from my Address (47H) on my Google My Business Listing. 

Or

Because i don't have my Payment Options written in WORDS as well as having icons displayed on my main page. 

Or

Because i have products in my store that have an "Untracked Inventory" 

Or 

Because I have Products in my store that are "in stock" but stocked by someone else 

Or 

That i have some dropshipping items

Or 

That ive not filled out my Target Audience settings and given a detailed breakdown of shipping costs to every country i sell to

Or 

That im selling face masks 

Or... .....Well the list is long, and goes on and on. All these pearls i found by reading the community forums on Google Merchants Help Section. 

of course Google won't tell me what the issue is! Duh! I have to go through everything with a fine tooth comb! 

And you can't resubmit your feed infinitely, you only have a few goes, so im trying to get it right before I resubmit it!! 

I may never be approved, because I've had two "official" responses regarding the elegabilty of Print on Demand Products for Google Shopping, one says its allowed, the other says not allowed. 

But im learning heaps anyway...! 😁

 In 12 months Ive never successfully used any Google Marketing Product for Missfits , the last issue was Google saying my site had Malware (which it didn't) And Google is JUST LIKE FACEBOOK and is completely vague about giving you any good information when something goes wrong. 

But if i can get it sorted, its less ad spend and more organic traffic, so it's worth chasing!! 

Interconnected with the Google Product Data Feed extravaganza is my Facebook Product Feed and Catalog. 

Missfits is ineligible for a Facebook Shop

(which happened when Shopify updated the Facebook Channel) my Commerce account was deemed a fail. NO REASON GIVEN OF COURSE!! 

 and have errors all over my Facebook Pixel Events saying "no product id." Or can't retarget 50% of visits " 

Strangely though my ads still work and my conversion reports are accurate) 

SO.. More time working on my Product Feed.

Originally I was thinking i could just edit my own data so it was all in order, but it seems you can't. 

Even the Google Shopping meta fields deep in your product CSV file are actually redundant. 

In the quest for the golden feed,  I tried some product feed apps including Upfeed, "Feed for Google Shopping" by Simpshopifyapps, Feed by Socialhead, DataFeedWatch, and a couple more. 

I abandoned them all for various reasons. 

I tried Flexify - which used to be a feed just for Facebook but now covers Google and Pinterest. 

(I installed it so could get my Pinterest feed sorted too as my enhanced Pins show most of my products as being out of stock. (this can wait for another post) 

This is not a plug for Flexify, its too expensive and slow, but im going to carry on using it as i can't figure out how else to add the information to my products without fucking with my product data in a majorly risky way. 

(do recommend Ablestar Bulk Editor however for basic edits) 

Flexify showed me the huge rabbit hole that im down now, which is all the data that Facebook wants!! (mostly optional) 

And darn it im adding information anyway so i may as well put it all in there!! 

So i have started by using Flexify, and mapping only one product category (Combat Boots) including every scrap of information that is possible, initially for a new Facebook Product Feed. And new Catalog 

This includes Color, Size, Style, Heel Thickness, Width, and about 30 other different attributes.

Progress EXTREMELY slow as the app uses the Shopify Bulk Editor as the input method and you may know the editor is like a snail on valium. There is no csv upload option (boo) 

That took a long time. 

And i will continue to work on this slowly every day bit by bit. 

Ive been doing Xero and Accounting (ergh) tonight but i will write another post about that later on today. 

Other things ive been doing today was to buy a new domain and start work on www.theimagination.store yey. 

More on that coming up next episode.... 

Finding A Niche

The typical approach of an eager entrepreneur starting out in Print on Demand, is to look for a "niche".

The way I would define a niche is that it Could be

- occupation based (Fireman, Nurse) 

- hobby based (Cycling, Gym) 

- location based (Including Ethnicity) 

There are probably lots more, and googling it, ive found Shopifys breakdown

~Price (e.g. luxury, moderate, discount)

~Demographics (gender, age, income level, education level)

~Level of quality (premium, handmade, economical)

~Psychographics (values, interests, attitudes)

~Geographics (residents of a certain country, city, or even neighborhood)

Then going further to offer 8 examples. 

Conscious consumers

Pet owners

The LGBTQ+ community

Travelers

Gamers

Homeowners

Remote workers

Locals

I suppose i probably have a very small window looking into the ecom startup world, but the up and coming Web Moguls of POD that pass by said window, often have similar ideas and peddle similar products with standard tshirt slogans and coffee mugs.

And its easy to see why. 

"Not A Guru" Joe Robert shares many free workshops and training courses (paid and unpaid) where i certainly hear mention of "Niche" in his promotional activities but I haven't personally participated in his program.

Other Ecommerce POD courses guide students to decide a Niche and begin testing designs using Facebook ads.

The very fact that "demand" and potential business success is benchmarked against Conversions and Engagement from Facebook Ads is inherently flawed to begin with. 

The fact that a person is COLD -(not shopping) when served with these adverts, means that the types of designs/products that get sales are usually "on steroids". 

When considering starting a conventional business, the process that Business Students are guided though, is 

-form an idea

"Evaluate a business opportunity in relation to current personal situation and skills."

-do market research 

"Conduct a basic external analysis for a business opportunity" 

-Create a marketing plan 

"Develop the marketing component of a business establishment plan" . 

-Do some testing

-List what you will need in term of equipment and resources 

-and make sure you know about the legal aspects and  Financial obligations 

I can firmly say that I did none of that when i started POD. And I would be surprised if suddenly my peers replied waving their business plans and budgets. 

But if we were to test our our products and designs, in the market research stage, in normal shopping environments, i suspect that the results would be different. 

I propose my theory, that the products that have sucess using Facebook Ads, are at the outer fringes of popular taste, due to the fact that we are selling to someone who is not looking to buy. So high impact designs are the ones that "win" 

I looked at PiperLoucollection.com, wondering about what "niche" it was, (im still not sure) 

But i would classify her store as a gift shop. 

Which got me thinking about the customers who buy the "NICHE" designs from Facebook ads. 

Would it be fair to say that customers often buy our "extreme" POD are in fact buying gifts? 

Something to ponder for now, as it could be due to it being Christmas, that i have this notion. 

Taking a look at the Top 500 shopify Store "Chart" also leaves me scratching my head. 

As the top 100 (that's as far as i have gotten) I wasn't able to easily identify a "niche" in many. 

I personally would prefer any business of mine to be on that list. (The Top 500) ,

 I assume that would be the goal of any Ecommerce Entrepreneur. 

But looking at The top stores, and then looking at the Top POD stores, shows that the two are very very far apart. 

However, there were a few stores in the top 500 that i had to look closely at, to establish if they were print on Demand. (meaning the product range was the same) 

I was beginning to lose hope, thinking that I would be stuck on the fringes of business success, looking in at the premium themed stores, who sell Hoodies with three dots as the design, for $160

I don't want to be a wanky brand like that either. 

But I do want to highlight some of the classier and slick Print in Demand successes. 

And find some nice in between. 

I will close with the questions that that have occurred to me while writing this... 

Could it be true that the way that Facebook forces us to target our audiences, may in fact be changing the way we catergorize new online stores

When exactly were some of the The top 500 stores established and how long ago did they

began to succeed, was it before Facebook ads were dominating? Did they already have a core following? One they gained using traditional marketing methods?

Is it possible to become THAT successful NOW.? Without selling some cheesy dog portraits or naff slogan tees and tumblers. 

(for the everyman to succeed, not the multi million dollar ad budgets) 

What else is there? How can I pull myself away from this Facebook ads vortex /black hole.