How to Start an eCommerce Business in 2020 (E121)

Kyle GoguenFounder of Paw Struck Bio: Kyle Goguen will always be an entrepreneur at heart. Kyle founded his first eBay store at 16 when local restaurants refused to hire him—apparently having zero work experience isn't a desirable attribute! From electronics to designer women's clothing, Kyle sold anything and everything he could get my hands on. He spent most of the profits purchasing inventory, which filled my parents' garage. Every other cent went straight into his savings account. At 18, Kyle put his eBay business on hold and headed off to USC—majoring in Industrial & Systems Engineering. Rather than jump back into eBay, he scooped up a few part-time jobs—one on campus as a Video Technician and the rest as a College Ambassador for brands like PlayStation, Monster Energy, and Ubisoft. Kyle rode that wave until he finished his Bachelor's and eventually my Master's in Engineering Management. With his degrees in hand, he made an illogical decision (in the eyes of many) and chose to avoid a career as an engineer—the thing he had been training to do for over 5.5 years. Instead, Kyle returned to his passion: eCommerce entrepreneurship. Pawstruck.com was born in January of 2014. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: https://www.pawstruck.com/https://www.thedapperdogbox.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylemgoguen/ Transcript: Charles (00:00): In this episode of the Business of eCommerce. I talk with Kyle Goguen about starting the an eCommerce business in 2020. This is the Business of eCommerce episode 121. Welcome to the Business of eCommerce. The show that helps eCommerce retailers start, launch and grow their eCommerce business. I'm your host, Charles Palleschi, and I'm here today with Kyle Goguen. Kyle is the founder of PawStruck, a e-commerce dog treats company, Kyle side of the company in 2014 and has since grown to 12 13 million, I assume on the show today. Tad about if you're starting an eCommerce business now in 2020, what are some of the best things you should be doing? So, Hey Kyle, how are you doing today? Kyle (00:43): I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. Charles (00:45): Yeah. Awesome to have you on the show. Love the new thing. Kind of focus in more towards retailers, just starting off on kind of what they can do, kind of getting into 20, 20 to kinda just help wherever they are today. Get to that next level. You see kind of a lot where they don't really know, kind of, everyone's kind of trying a lot of different things. What I've noticed. So it's kind of always interested in saying what's the one thing you should actually be focusing on? Cause I feel like that's of the, the big thing right on. You could do a little PPC, a little social ads, you know, do some Instagram, do some random blogging, but that's usually not the right thing to do. So I guess to fit, to start, what would you, if you're talking to a new retailer today, they're just starting off, or at least I have something going, what would you say they should be focusing on in this upcoming year to help kind of grow their business? Kyle (01:39): Sure. So something that we've found to be extremely effective is email marketing. I think it's something that, especially new eCommerce stores hesitate to jump into and really focus on. It's something that I personally failed to do for the first couple of years of my business as well. At least for me, like I, I didn't see email is it's kind of the future of marketing. I thought it was kind of old school cause it didn't really work on, on me personally as a consumer. It wasn't something like I keep my inbox pretty clean. I feel like those email campaigns don't work on me. I just get annoyed if retailers are emailing me. But frankly, in, in most most categories of products and almost every e-commerce owner I've talked to, email marketing is like the number one most successful and profitable m...