How to tell a customer that his ecommerce idea is difficult to sell?

Sometimes an ecommerce idea is difficult to sell. It happens quite regularly in ecommerce website development world. When a customer comes to you and just pour out his outrageous ideas.

The challenge is,

how do you tell your customer that his ecommerce idea will be difficult to realize?

That he will have difficulty paying for it if he wants to pursue it, or that his idea is an illusion?

From years of experience talking with clients here are 5 things to say his ideas are too difficult to implement.

• Tell him to take action directly!

E-commerce website is simply selling products online! That he doesnt need to have an e-commerce website to sell his product. What he need to do is try to “sell only one product to someone! It can be his friend, neighbor, family, etc. What is important is that he is able to” offer “this product to someone while making a margin of profit on it. If he has not taken this step, in my view, it is our obligation to tell him he does not  need to have his ecommerce website built  just yet. He has to see if people agree to buy his product and if he is able to sell it.

• Tell him to sell his first product and probe the market?

The easiest way is to determine where there is potential traffic, such as on classified sites or auction sites instead of having you build a ecommerce website right away. Here are potential places people can try to sell their product on: ebay, amazon, or even try social media places like facebook. See if he is able to sell his product. If he can not close a sale, there might be a problem of interest of this product. His product is not garnering interest from people due to many factors. Two of these are the price might be too high or a bad packaging.

• Most Customers Believe that they are exclusive distributor

How many times have I seen clients who explained to me that they have exclusivity for the sale of a product X or Y … that a contract had been signed etc … (many times have I  laughed within myself). How do you tell a client who is credulous or naive, and does not understand the rule of commerce which is always, “the one who sells the most has priority over the others”.

• Tell the customer to make local market a priority

Too many times I also see customers who are thinking of selling internationally. Some would argue that the market is unlimited (of course if is)! But they need to understand there are shipping costs to consider and they are not cheap.

• Let’s be honest!

And just tell him to come back when he has made his first sale! This is not dishonest or being arrogant, on the contrary, it is especially a very good exercise for the customer, to pass from his theoretical ideas to actually practicing the reality … and also a very good method to avoid a financial crash in advance (before injecting all his savings into a new venture that he has not made any hands-on profit yet).

As a rule, sell only products that you like and have ample knowledge about. Check out our more recent articles on How to guarantee a successful dropshipping business. The tips and suggestions are really helpful.

We are not just ecommerce website developers, we are partners with our clients and customers! And if we can help them to see the challenges and the cost it takes to sell their ideas online. We may find ourselves better for it down the road.

In short.

What they need to remember is passion for selling their product is of utmost important! The Excel files … the beautiful calculations .. they are all good, but reality is not all rosy. This does not mean that they should not try their ecommerce idea , but they have to practice doing some sales to better understand their potential as an ecommerce website  manager and owner in the niche that they have chosen.

At shoptech.medIa, we are partners with your ecommerce idea. Contact us when you are ready to take on a new challenge of being a ecommerce website seller and owner! We are here to help!