Our biggest challenge ended up being our biggest success which was creating a decentralized network of fabric suppliers, artisans, sewers, and designers from underrepresented communities throughout the United States. For most fashion brands, everything is manufactured overseas but we at Paskho wanted to find ways to give back to the community and worked tirelessly to create a sustainable clothing line through this network. Although the initial set up was difficult, the rise in remote work made our dream possible and lead to us prospering as a business coming out of the pandemi whereas a lot of other clothing brands faced numerous supply chain issues.
One of the biggest struggles we've faced is that we opened our company not long before the pandemic began. In the initial lockdown period — and for a good while after — people were very cautious about spending. This represented a huge challenge for our business because, as an early-stage startup, we did not have a lot of padding to fall back on. We solved this issue through a combination of making a quick and unbureaucratic pivot toward products people stuck at home may find valuable, by allocating our funding in smart ways and by resisting the urge to expand too quickly, even once we started to be in a position to.
Our biggest ecommerce growth roadblock has been the impacts created by the pandemic, such as delays in sending and receiving packages through the mail. Even though the e-commerce market is booming due the changing behaviors of shoppers, package delays are always a cause for concern when dealing with customer retention. These set-backs have caused packages arriving later than intended or being rerouted to an extra stop before arriving to the customer. To resolve the issue as best of our ability, we ensure customers have all the information an resources to keep track of their orders, and are updated frequently on any changes that occur during the shipping process.
Our biggest roadblock was in the early days when we were seeking a company to partner with. The brands we approached didn't seem to think that an idea brought to them by a woman in her 60s would be viable in the current marketplace. Additionally, they weren't aware of the importance of eating for brain health, so they assumed consumers wouldn't be interested either. Subsequently, they passed on starting a venture with us altogether. After a string of people turned me down, my son Patrick said I should see it as an opportunity to empower myself by bootlegging it. So we launched a mission-focused company through self-funding and loving investments from family and friends.
The biggest roadblock I faced on my e-commerce journey was entering fairly late into the market. Brands that introduce a new idea or a new exciting product get a huge advantage in setting their robust brand recognition and building trust. Brands who come afterward get a hard time in making their roots go deeper. This is exactly what happened to me. The market I jumped into was pretty saturated already, and the competition was soaring. This gave me a hard time expanding and generating more revenue. But the turning point that sky-rocketed my business was rebranding. I came again with a better positioning, unique voice, and unique value proposition. And then working on my strongest points. Results? Steady growth faster even in crowded competition.
One of our biggest early mistakes was not optimizing our website for mobile checkout sooner. It can be difficult to keep up with the changing tech trends and although people could check out for our product on their phone, our checkout process was clunky, outdated, and surely contributed to our lousy sales. After rebuilding a mobile exclusive checkout and integrating tightly with our targeted instagram and Tiktok ads, we saw a massive spike in sales and they have remained at consistently higher levels since. The lesson here is to always pay attention to consumer buyer trends, and do everything you can to reduce friction from the checkout process.
Competition has been the biggest eCommerce growth roadblock so far. And it becomes worst due to insufficient time. This competition is not just about marketing sales but also hiring the right staff. Several brands are introduced to the market featuring the same products, which makes it difficult for a particular brand to grow. To overcome this situation we built a strong image in the market. It helps to be recognized among the customers, which also assembles loyalty. Be unique among the competitors and let your company's aspects be clear to the audience. It helps to reach them and increases sales resulting in growth.
The biggest growth roadblock in the e-commerce journey I faced was in the early stage. I wanted to give the best offer, so I had a generous 30-day return policy on all my products. However, some consumers vividly used to misuse the policy. They would buy products and return them without any legitimate reason. Resultantly, it was costing me a fair share of the business, was getting annoying for the team, and was stopping us to scale faster. I had to come up with better return policies or at least had to do something about it. So what I did was: a) I included more FAQs to stop consumers from wrongly buying products. b) I blacklisted those frequent consumers who were misusing the policies. c) I stopped targeting such a consumer base in my marketing. d) I included more detailed instructions and imagery of products to help consumers make better-informed decisions. The results? The nightmare stopped to the minimum.
Believe it or not, our largest e-commerce growth roadblock was failing to understand exactly what it was that our customers wanted. At that point in time, we had not conducted nearly enough market research to ascertain the full scope of our customers' wants and needs. But with a comprehensive understanding of the problem, we were able to overcome this shortcoming and as a result now have a very intimate understanding of our customers.
With the pandemic came uncertainty for consumers. For us, it was essential to be transparent with our consumers regarding any internal dialogue that may be helpful to relay, such as the conversation around shipping delays and when our buyers could expect their packages. Given the circumstances, we realized that to continue to grow, we needed to practice openness with our community.
Hiring the right talent was giving me an extremely hard time for me. Because the right team can literally make or break the game. It’s not just about having enough experience or skills, but it’s more about being passionate about the idea, better culture fit, and most importantly, growing together. I started exploring remote talent from all over the world. Using job listings on LinkedIn and other platforms, I was able to build a diverse, inclusive, and passionate team that was needed to scale my business.
Well, I won’t shy away from admitting that in the early days, I was less focused on giving customers a great experience, and I was focused more on making our products great. Both of these things are crucial. But customers’ outweigh in the sense that even if you have a great product, but if your customers don’t have a positive association with your brand, you’re going to struggle. I guess I did not fully realize the importance of having an outstanding customer support team. Seeing the graphs going down, I quickly hired a better team and even trained them professionally. By making my support extremely personalized to our every customer, I was able to grow immensely.
My biggest ecommerce growth roadblock so far has been cash flow. As we've scaled our business, we've had to invest more and more money into inventory and other growth initiatives. This has put a strain on our cash flow, and managing it has been a challenge. We've solved this problem by taking out loans and lines of credit to cover our short-term needs. This has allowed us to keep our business growing while still being able to meet our financial obligations. We've also been careful to manage our inventory levels so that we don't tie up too much capital in stock. While cash flow has been a challenge, it hasn't been a nightmare. We've been able to stay on top of our payments and keep our business moving forward.
Managing the shipping prices was one of the biggest hurdles for us. Customers are always on the hunt for a better deal. If you don’t offer free shipping, your competitors are. Especially in the case of Amazon, it becomes even more demanding to offer consumers free returns and free shipping offers to make more sales. So we did a couple of things to try to minimize our shipping costs to the point it was suitable: we partnered with reliable courier companies to reduce costs. We only offered free shipping on products worth over $100 in the early days. Or we offered free shipping on special occasions like a new launch or Black Friday deals. By doing so, we were able to manage shipping costs in the early stages.
The biggest hurdle we faced was continuously having an influx of traffic, but not being able to scale up our services quickly enough. This led to customers leaving, which was devastating from a growth perspective. We have been able to overcome this issue by working with multiple partners, creating circuit breakers and backup APIs, and constantly communicating with our technical partners to ensure that our service levels are high enough to meet customer demand.
Knowing what customers exactly want was one of the biggest roadblocks in my e-commerce business. This cost me thousands. One of my most expensive Black Friday campaigns failed miserably — even though the occasion is there to sell. The products we were producing were simply not aligned with the needs and desires of my target customers. There was a mismatch. So what helped our company? Better deep research. We even took 1:1 interviews of existing and new ideal prospects to figure out what changes we must make to meet their expectations. Resultantly, we were making our customers happier. We produced products and tailored them exactly how our customers wanted. The lesson I learned is that it’s all about customers. No matter how awesome you think your product is, if customers don’t love it, it’s not going to cut it.
I used to be a co-owner of an online store selling exotic flowers. And managing inventory was the biggest growth roadblock we experienced. We sold products that were unique, and when we first started out, we underestimated how long it would take to fulfill each order. As a result, we often found ourselves running out of certain flowers, which led to delays and disappointed customers. We solved this problem by keeping a closer eye on our inventory levels and placing larger orders when necessary. We also started stockpiling most demanded flowers so that we would always have a reserve on hand. While this required a larger upfront investment, it saved us a lot of time and headaches in the long run. Managing inventory is a constant challenge for e-commerce businesses, but it's one that every business owner should be well-prepared to handle.
A good friend with a degree in marketing once approached me for a marketing position in my small e-commerce business. I hired him to devise strategies and help me reach my target audience. One thing he proposed was creating accounts on multiple platforms and spreading our content across all of them. At first, I thought it was an incredible idea and decided to give it a shot. Two weeks later, I noticed that we'd been restless since we launched our marketing drive. Only to find out our attention was divided into multiple social channels without realizing that we were not going anywhere with it. Desperate to hit our intended deadline, we dropped some social media accounts and focused on one channel with the highest target market concentration. Good thing we did that because it helped us connect with our audience on a deeper level and let us realize there was no sense in casting a wide net across multiple platforms as it just wasted our time and resources.
One of the biggest roadblocks we faced during our eCommerce growth was Amazon holding back funds. Due to the high volume of orders, we were processing, Amazon began to hold a portion of our payments for "risky orders." This put a strain on our cash flow and made it difficult to purchase new inventory. We eventually solved the issue by providing Amazon with additional documentation and proof of delivery. We also implemented a new payment processor that allowed us to get paid more quickly. While these issues caused some headaches in the short term, they ultimately made our business stronger and more resilient.
The biggest hurdle we faced in the early days of our e-commerce growth was poor, improper stock management. We were always left and right, running out of products or overstocking to skyrocket our costs. Out-of-stock products were costing us not only potential revenue but were also leaving a negative impression on our brand. The only way we were able to solve this problem was by using an efficient CRM and proper analytical tools to keep track of our inventories. We were able to be in control and bid farewell to the out-of-stock notification forever.