“What the heck is this?” That’s probably what you were asking yourself when you read my last article, where I was selling you a lighter.
Why would Cody try to sell me a lighter? Is he getting desperate to sell things? Does he really need money right now?
All fair questions, at first glance.
But there’s something much deeper here. There is a reason why I am selling lighters right now. And there is a reason why I am telling you about the whole project.
This will be so obvious to you in hindsight, you’ll give yourself a solid hand palm to your face.
I don’t have to tell you what is going on in the world right now. Everything is completely upside down… beyond many of our wildest imaginations. Who would of thought, just six months ago, that restaurants would be closed for guests, oil would be selling for negative prices, and the world would have one of the highest unemployment rates ever?
No one.
Yet, here we are. And now it’s time to react. Get busy.
One of the most obvious side-effects of this entire crisis is that people don’t want to interact with other people in a face-to-face setting. That, of course, means a lot of businesses are in a lot of trouble.
That also means that some businesses are ABSOLUTELY CRUSHING IT right now. As in, double, triple, quadruple growth rates. Getting so many customers and making so much money that they can’t scale fast enough. Seriously, they can’t keep up with demand and are missing out on a lot of business. A very good problem to have.
The definition of e-commerce is literally the solution to nearly every business that is struggling right now.
How do you sell your product or service at a nearly infinite scale, without ever having to meet your customer or client face to face? You sell digitally.
Before you say something like, “Oh, I don’t sell anything. I’m not a salesperson!” You are wrong. Oh, so wrong.
EVERYONE IS A SALESPERSON.
Whether you’re a police officer, a politician, a lawyer, a doctor, or someone selling fruit on the street, you are selling your skills. We’re all distinctly different from one another, but we are all trying to exploit our personal attributes as best as possible. We are all selling something.
So, if your skill is very difficult to provide through the digital world, you better start learning how to make that happen! Because the world is changing FAST.
Before you get overwhelmed, or think that you’re too late to the game, let’s put some of our economy into perspective.
In 2019, the global retail market was valued at over $25 trillion, but Ecommerce made up just over 14% of that.
Source: Statista
While we don’t have data right now (we’ll have to wait several months), we can all assume that these data points are going to drastically change going forward. With millions of physical retail locations closed throughout the world, consumers have been forced to make purchases online.
Companies like Amazon and Instacart are hiring hundreds of thousands of new employees to keep up with demand. Grocery orders that used to take Instacart under an hour to fulfill are now taking over two weeks!
Source: Moengage / Apptopia
This entire event has created a tremendous opportunity for certain companies. But it has also exposed some extremely vulnerable business models that will never be able to recover from this pandemic.
And that is where one of the largest opportunities exists today: Taking ordinary businesses and transforming them into digital machines.
There are some industries that just can’t go fully digital. But every business (that I can think of) can somehow make a part of their operations more efficient by implementing a way for their customers to do business with them virtually.
Again, if this sounds intimidating, you’re not alone. Most people are resistant to change, especially when it involves venturing into a new and unfamiliar world with big risks.
However, the alternative is simply unacceptable. We all most adapt to survive.
Back to my lighter project…
Usually the best way to get started with something is to just start. I have no idea where this venture will take me, but I do know that I’ve already learned more about selling a product online than I could have ever read about.
I’ll share the whole experience with you over the next several months (I’ll also still be talking about other investments… real estate is on my mind, as I’m sure it is for you too). I’m sure there will be lots more bumps in the road and interesting challenges that I would have never thought about. However, based on our current traction, this should be a successful venture.
(Want the full report of how we launched a simple company, and made over $50k in the first 2 days, in one document? Read this and follow the instructions!)
If you’re contemplating pivoting your own business, starting a new one, or figuring out how to make yourself more valuable for the future, you’d be nuts not to start learning about e-commerce.
