Ask HN: How do we get our first sale?
Hello HN, I'm writing here as I'm running our of options. Me and my wife have decided to invest a good chunk of money to bootstrap our own business. I'm a software engineer (currently employed in London), she has been working with high fashion handcrafted clothing brands for years (we are originally from Italy).
The natural choice we made was to start selling online the same kind of products my wife has been selling for years. The store is: http://polghi.co.uk/
Long story short: we spent months going around Italy to get the best suppliers we could find (italian artisans mostly, which have 0 presence online and that were still interested in selling abroad), we set up the online store and started some heavy campaigns with Facebook and Adwords. I knew form experience that selling online was difficult BUT so far the result is beyond worst: 0 orders.
We have cut all the prices, started promotional campaigns. Nothing seems to work. Any suggestion? Am I missing anything?
This "bootstrap your company" thing is really becoming an emotional roller coaster.
@jnardiello's retrospective from 2015 captures the critical transition from initial concept to the first dollar of customer revenue.
Discussions analyzed Show HN launch mechanics, cold DM outreach conversion rates, and the psychology of validating customer demand before writing code.
Did you make similar "offline" effort on customer side like going around and talking to the potential customers? It seems you took "active hands-on" approach for supplier acquisition, but you are taking "passive hands-off" approach for customer acquisition.
While online promotion through advertising is good, I will suggest do some offline reach out to potential customers. Consider going around the places and events where people who like high fashion, handicraft, clothing hang out. You need to find a few early adopters who can be brand ambassdors. You need to be in close contact with some of your early potential customers so that you can see their decision making process, hear their comments, etc.
Time for some guerrilla marketing.
[1] If you can identify a few vendors, places, or events, offer to give them at cost all the sale of your line, display few pieces of your clothing with oversize tags on the clothing, banners directing to see more choices at your website.
[2] Ask a few people who mingle in such groups to wear your "attention grabbing" clothing that would potentially spur conversation among people.
[3] Show up at the gatherings of targeted people wearing your own clothing with a small tag hanging out, like you just bought a new piece of clothing and forgot to remove the tag before wearing and going out.
[4] Instead of buying gifts for any occasion to your friends and family, give out pieces from your clothing line as gifts.
[5] Take some of your low cost clothing to a few consignment stores who sell "high fashion clothing" and sell them as seconds. You will also gain insight into pricing.
[6] Hang out on online forums relevant to your line of clothing. Become a subject matter expert on such forums.
You need to rewrite your landing page. It currently sounds like it was written by someone who speaks English as a second language. Here is the current text:
Polghi is a niche fashion brand that offers a contemporary view of “elegant simplicity”. The designs of our exclusive clothing and accessories line have been conceptualised to facilitate comfortable yet refined outfits.
Polghi is a blend of the finest artisan traditions of "Made-in-Italy" and the newest technological trends. We rigourously follow the life of our range of pure cashmere products from their origin as handpicked fibres to post-manufacturing quality control.
Our dedication to excellence and to the highest quality in all our endeavors is something we wish our customers to experience firsthand.
_-----
Suggested edits to start:
Polghi is a new brand that offers a contemporary view of elegant simplicity. Our exclusive line of clothing and accessories are comfortable to wear yet present a refined image.
We blend the finest artisan traditions of Made-in-Italy with the newest technology to bring you practical beauty. We follow the life of our pure cashmere products from their origin as handpicked fibres to post-manufacturing to ensure the highest quality control.
Our dedication to excellence and to the highest quality brings the best and most beautiful fabrics and designs to our customers.
----
Do not use the word niche. It signals small rather than exclusive. If you sell high end clothes, you need to be a bit of a snob about it.
I would say, you don't have a traffic problem. But what you have is a metrics problem.
Do you have any metrics associated with the flow of traffic.
1) Are you seeing what happens when you place banners on facebook?
2) What demos are clicking (if any) your banners.
3) Where are you losing people. Are you direct linking to your home page, or are you pairing a banner with a product page?
4) What is the title of the headline that you are using?
5) What is the copy of the product page that you are using after the FB advert?
6) Are you doing any sort of re-targeting? Do you make the checkout process easy or easier on revisits?
7) Are you capturing any data from people who are visiting?
8) Do you have any type of newsletter?
9) How do people know you have slashed prices, are you telling people why they should buy at your site?
So many things I could go on. Put it this way, I have sold other peoples t-shirts on facebook as an affiliate. It's not terribly difficult, but the devil is in the analytics.
1) Images
2) Headline
3) Copy
4) Call To Action
5) Devices / Useragents
6) Geo-location
7) Retargeting
8) Opt-in
9) Funnels.
All of these matter and if you get it done right, not only will you start making sales. You'll start to make a lot of sales!
Good luck!
Have you thought of getting into People's views with YouTube influencers? Since you do need someone to check out the clothes and "recommend" them, digitally this gets you a very targeted audience.
Depending on your budget you can go big and spend on influencers making specific videos, or go low budget and have them do shoutouts during their regular programming. or just send them free clothes.
Here's a few that might be good: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGentlemanCove https://www.youtube.com/user/DulceCandy87 https://www.youtube.com/user/lindsayslatest
Here's a few things I thought while on your site:
1) It looks like you're in the sheep business. 2) It took me a bit of digging to get to "Products" and even find out how to purchase anything. 3) You can deliver something directly to your potential customers that they are looking for, based on at least season. Right now I might look for hoodies or sweaters, show those right away!
I know nothing about fashion so take this with a grain of salt.
Your products are definitely on the very high end of price when it comes to clothing. Do people buy expensive clothes from a brand they've never heard of online? Maybe you're better suited to a bricks and mortar store so people can touch and feel the product, without the heft of a well known brand behind you. If not a store, then supplying other stores.
The discounting strikes me with cognitive dissonance. You're trying to sell a premium product - why would you discount? Personally I'd never buy clothes that were this expensive outside of a premium suit. I am a purchaser of other premium products, though. Look at what the brands you want to imitate do. Do they discount? Do they do run out sales? Better to just change your price if you didn't pick the right one. If someone's looking for a discount, they're probably after a $20 sweater, not s $500 one.