Starting your own ecommerce business can be scary, trust us, we know. However, starting a successful ecommerce business can be one of the most freeing and lucrative decisions you can ever make. Self-employment allows you to be your own boss, work when and how you want, and ensure that all the profit from your business goes into YOUR pocket. Ecommerce is truly one of the best ways to gain financial freedom. This post will include some success stories in ecommerce and what you can learn from them.
Successful Ecommerce Companies
Anagails is a family-owned boutique that sells all kinds of apparel. They are most famously known for their repurposing of Louis Vuitton products into other clothing. Anagails followed the direction of many other businesses and decided to use ecommerce capital to receive the funds she needed to grow her business. After taking her first loan from Onramp in March of 2022, Anagails has increased her sales by almost 90%!!
What you can learn: Utilizing working capital like Onramp can be the fuel you need to lift your business off the ground. Let companies like Onramp provide the capital and expertise needed to take you to the next level rather than using your personal finances.
Tree Hut is a premium watch seller that sells on Shopify;. Tree Hut, like many others, had not raised venture capital and had very little cash to work with in its early days. The CEO of Tree Hut, Julia Olson, credits their success to testing and talking to their customers to understand and answer their needs. They did this mainly through consistently updating their website and running marketing campaigns. Email campaigns and promotions were their most successful methods. Olson also ramped up their inventory before the holiday season, which allowed them to move its headquarters to San Francisco. Tree Hut generates more than $20 million in sales, making it one of the best examples of ecommerce success.
What you Can learn: Understanding your customer is so critical to the success of your ecommerce business. Tree Hut never stopped testing and improving their product. Additionally, running marketing campaigns such as email marketing or paid advertising helps get your new and improved products out to the public. Onramp can help you fund these campaigns and improve your product!
National Parks Depot
Robert Nava, the owner of National Parks Depot, never could have imagined the success of his business years ago. Formerly incarcerated, Nava has been in and out of jail, addicted to drugs. However, in 2007, he was released from prison and decided to change his life. One slight problem however is the lack of opportunity for ex-felons, no matter if they have changed as people. This does not apply to e-commerce and entrepreneurship though! This is quite possibly the only field where ex-felons are not only allowed, but thrive. Nava stated himself that ex-felons want to be different and stand out among the crowd. Nava redirected that drive into success for his business, and thus, National Parks Depot was born.
Nava sold National Park apparel and outdoor gear on Shopify;. Once the shop started to pick up steam, Nava decided to try Facebook advertising. He decided to invest $60 and ended up in nearly $1,000 in sales on day 1. Nava repeated this process and sales continued to grow. Until: he had a problem. As a drop-shipper, once sales started to rapidly pick up, his suppliers ran out, leaving him with no product to fulfill orders. Nava turned to a friend to get some financial help, and things ended up working out for him as two months after launch he made nearly 80K in sales. He has since moved on from this store to other ventures, nevertheless, his story is inspiring.
What you can learn: This story tells us two things. 1. Ecommerce doesn't care about your past, you can be successful despite what anyone thinks. 2. Facebook Advertising is one of the best investments for your business. However, Onramp doesn't want you to have to borrow from friends or dig into your own pockets to make this happen! The worst thing that could happen to your business is to experience growth without the inventory to support it. Onramp gives you the working capital so you can have enough inventory AND money left over to market and grow your business!
Bonobos is an online men's apparel company owned by Andy Dunn. Dunn offered up a massive sale in newsletters in hope to increase his sales. That he did. However, his website could not handle the massive influx of traffic to the page, which led to many missed opportunities to sell. Additionally, Dunn cashed in his 401k to build his business. Dunn ended up learning his lesson after the website mishap. Bonobos ended up improving this problem and grew into a major company that got acquired for quite a pretty penny.
What you can learn: Don't bite off more than you can chew. There is value in slow and steady growth. Make sure your ducks are in a row before you market the crap out of your business! Many web hosting companies like Bluehost can make expanding your website easier. Additionally, we want to ensure you never have to cash in your 401k to make your business happen. Onramp can provide you with capital to scale your business and upgrade your website so you can ensure this doesn't happen to you!
In Focus
While these are only a tiny amount of successful ecommerce businesses, they show how anyone can take nothing to something with hard work and smart planning. As ecommerce sellers ourselves, we encourage anyone who has an idea to go after it and start their own ecommerce business. Who knows, maybe you will end up as the next ecommerce success story. Onramp works with small businesses like this daily and helps them in their journey to financial freedom.
