Welcome to Thursdays with Cyn where I share my personal TIPS AND TRICKS to hopefully motivate and inspire you to take action TOWARDS Your OWN e-commerce entrepreneurial journey.

Today’s topic: The Motion of the E-com Ocean!

Let’s discuss what we can learn from the ocean and how to apply that to our e-commerce businesses. Who would have thought there would even be similarities between these two things? Right???. 

Well! There are!

As you know, Ocean currents are driven by a range of sources: the wind, tides, changes in water density, and the rotation of the Earth. 

The topography of the ocean floor and the shoreline modifies those motions, causing currents to speed up, slow down, or change direction. 

The same is true with an e-commerce business - 

A variety of factors influence the direction of the business causing it to speed up or slow down or change direction.

As with the ocean - you can depend on the tide coming in and receding every single time it happens - like clockwork… because of those driving forces behind it.

E-com businesses kinda work the same way… 

there will always be an ebb and flow… like clockwork … you can bank on it!

Things will be going great and then you will hit an obstacle that will throw you for a loop so hard you think - this is it… it's over… I’ll never recover!

But -- the outcome of a problem is 90-95% controlled by how you respond to it. Right?

We all face challenges in business - but when we face them head on with positivity - 

which forces an open mind and allows creative thinking - 

you achieve winning results that will then provide drive and momentum to keep pushing you forward.

So, allow me to share an example - 

One of my clients that I support as their e-com business manager has multiple products - one of which is clearly the best seller. 

Well, in the e-commerce world, it can be pretty cut-throat due to other sellers being greedy and trying to get every sale for themselves in an unethical way.

Everyone knows that Black Friday through Cyber Monday are typically huge days for orders for Christmas shopping.  

For the last 2 years in a row, we have experienced a “black hat tactic” by a greedy Amazon seller that has caused us to have our #1 selling item REMOVED from Amz all together!

This means there was no listing for our #1 selling product during the most important selling days of the entire year!

To put this into perspective - the first year, we lost over $50K in sales, and this year it was projected to be about $75K.  

That’s a huge hit to take for any business.

We know it was a black hat tactic by a greedy competitor due to the reason the listing was shut down. Another story.. 

It took a week of appealing to Amazon and submitting documentation to finally get the listing re-activated. 

Not only was this a huge loss for my client...

But it was a huge loss for me - Loss of commissions earned on all those sales.

So - How did I respond?

As the Ecom Business Manager - it was my responsibility to fix it.

Was I mad? Absolutely!

Did I just pout, cry, and stomp my feet and say a few choice words when it happened - probably!  

Is that all I did? Absolutely NOT!

Because of that very first ordeal - I suggested to my client some changes we could make to lessen the impact if such a thing occurred again. 

Now - if you’ve been paying attention, you may be thinking… wait a minute.. you lost $50K the first time and $75K the 2nd time… that sounds like whatever you did didn’t work..

Oh ye of little faith!

Let’s dig a little deeper!

When you take a look at how much the business grew from one year to the next - 50% increase - roughly $600K - that extra $25K we lost this year is actually less when you compare it to the ratio of the first year.

Make sense?

$50K in year 1 for a $1M business

versus $75K in year 2 for a $1.6M business 

saved about 1% = $10,000 

Part B of this scenario is we diversified the business onto more e-commerce platforms (Shopify) so all those sales - over $100K - are incremental and not included in the $1.6M figure above.

Amazon is not the end all - be all… they are just one fish in the e-com pond...

Remember when I said “the outcome of a problem is 90-95% controlled by how you respond to it”?

If we had not experienced that issue the first year... we may not have expanded to that other platform and sold an additional $100K.

This is just one example of tons of issues you could face…

E-commerce is just like the ocean..

You will have ebbs and flows - it's guaranteed!

Learn how to keep an open mind so your creativity will flow allowing you to positively create winning solutions.

Every obstacle you face is an opportunity to learn from the experience.

Some learning will be more painful than others…that’s just life and business.

As long as you learn from them - you will continue to grow and expand your knowledge and become better equipped to handle any obstacle that comes your way.

Bottom line: embrace the motion of the e-commerce ocean and keep that positive attitude in order to find creative new solutions to overcome any challenges you may be facing.

Now I want to hear from you!

So comment below: 

What type of challenges have you faced in your business and how did you respond to it?

I love hearing your stories and learning from you on how you overcame your own challenges. 

And … that’s a wrap for today… See you next week!