5 Unique Services and Brands That Can Boost Your Ecommerce Business If you're the owner of an online store, you shouldn't have a finger in every pie. Instead, look for outside help.
By Thomas Smale Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Managing an ecommerce business isn't easy. If, in particular, you're the owner of an online store, you shouldn't have a finger in every pie.
Related: 11 Mobile Apps That Make Managing Your Online Store Easier
Ideally, you don't want your ecommerce business to become fully reliant on you, either. You should outsource and delegate what you can so you can remain focused on high-level business-development activities. Don't be a victim of "superhero syndrome" -- you can't do it all.
Help is available in a variety of categories, and the following unique services and brands should help you gain more control over your time.
FounderTees
T-shirts are one thing, but FounderTees proves that soft, comfortable and shrink-resistant t-shirts are a whole other thing. This company even allows you to custom-order your company logo on the back of the shirts.
Since the company has already hand-selected the best designs, you don't have to make your own, hire a designer or search the web far and wide to find the best-looking shirts. Plus, t-shirts make for great marketing and branding tools, especially if you can get your customers to wear them wherever they go.
Cameron Herold, author of Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue in Profit in 3 Years or Less, discusses the idea of appearing bigger than you are as a company by presenting a unified front at trade shows, conferences or business events. Even just a few people can seem like an army when they're all wearing the same t-shirts. That's one way to build brand awareness.
Steve Chou
Steve Chou of MyWifeQuitHerJob.com helps ecommerce business owners build a profitable online store through his many free resources. When his wife became pregnant and quit her job, he decided to figure out how to replace her income by building an online income instead of sacrificing their lifestyle. He teaches others how to do the same.
What's unique about MyWifeQuitHerJob.com is that it doesn't promote any products or service pitches, to speak of. Chou simply offers great information on how to build your online store through his blog and podcast. You can also view his list of recommended tools and income reports to get a sense of what's possible with ecommerce. Chou does have a course you can purchase, however, at profitableonlinestore.com.
David Siteman Garland named Chou one of the most trustworthy sources for how to build a profitable online store. Other notable entrepreneurs have had great things to say about this entrepreneur's refreshingly open and transparent look at ecommerce.
Mobile Marketo
Have you ever felt frustration when trying to monetize your mobile site? Developing a fast and easy mobile checkout process can be difficult. Plus, you need to optimize load times, or your website visitors may never return. According to Kissmetrics, 73 percent of mobile internet users surveyed have said they've encountered a website that was too slow to load. Furthermore, 40 percent of users abandoned a website that took more than three seconds to load.
So, the message is that if you don't capture new customers in that moment, you could end up losing them for good. You could try running a remarketing campaign to bring them back to your site, but then your acquisition costs increase, and by that point your prospects may well have found a viable alternative and won't even buy from you.
This is the very reason MobileMarketo was founded. It helps businesses craft more effective mobile campaigns to maximize results. MobileMarketo even calls itself an "m-commerce" company.
If you're at a loss as to how to better monetize your mobile users, a service like this could help you convert more visitors.
PPC Masterminds
How do you know that you're getting the best results possible with your ads, SEO and conversion rate-optimization efforts? If you're trying to do it all yourself, the simple answer is you probably don't know whether you're getting those results. It's difficult enough to be an expert in one area of marketing, let alone many.
PPC Masterminds exists to help businesses get more from every click. It has optimized over 420 accounts to date. Nor are its services limited to pay per click (PPC), which makes the company unique: Its staffers also specialize in SEO, web analytics, and web design. And, if that weren't enough, the company offers courses on retargeting and competitive analysis you can purchase, to gain a better understanding of each.
Related: 3 Tools Ecommerce Retailers Can Use to Boost Efficiency
Overall, customers have had good things to say, citing the company's clear and transparent communication and thorough reporting.
Digital CoLab
No entrepreneur should try to do everything in isolation. The best ideas and strategies don't come from working on your business alone, day in and day out. Instead, there's a good chance others have encountered whatever challenges you're facing right now, and they may have even found a way to solve it. You could potentially bypass years of toil and struggle by leveraging the knowledge of others.
That's why it's useful to turn to Digital CoLab. The company offers an accelerated two-day learning experience to be held this year in Dallas, in October.
Tabitha Philen of Inspired Bloggers University had this to say about the 2015 Digital CoLab event: "Truly, the opportunities to network with powerhouse podcasters, millionaire bloggers and really cool nerds were numerous, but the best part . . . it was like a huge family reunion. No pretenses. No stuffy suits. Just blue jeans, flip flops and a bunch of friends talking about business over dinner."
If you're looking for a unique, non-corporate conference experience, Digital CoLab is worth a look.
Final thoughts
It's easy to balk at the cost of outsourcing and utilizing various tools and services to grow your business. But if outside help takes that weight off your shoulders, allowing you to focus on marketing and on gaining more customers, that help is worth its weight in gold.
Related: The 5 Most Innovative Trends in Ecommerce to Watch for in 2016
It's difficult for one person to manage and oversee an entire ecommerce operation. Things will fall through the cracks, and that could harm your reputation. So, if you're starting to feel overwhelmed -- if you didn't start a business so you could be tied to it-- don't put off finding help.
