Aspiring clothing brand [and other product] owners it's time to get hype!
Justin Phillips is a co-owner of Support Black Colleges, a successful black-owned clothing company in Atlanta, Georgia. He published a book based on two years of on-the-job experience running SBC’s ecommerce (also spelled e-commerce) store. Though it is written with SBC’s Shopify store in mind, the information shared will be helpful to anyone interested in running an e-commerce business.
The book can be divided into five general themes.
Mental and emotional preparation
In the first four sections of the book, Phillips’ describes the mental and emotional journey he has been on up to this point. He discusses the obstacles he faced and discusses the strategies and tools that helped him overcome them.
Determining your business identity
The sections labeled, “Getting started,” “Making your logo,” and “Create your store” guide readers on getting the ball rolling. It describes four types of ecommerce shops people can develop–mission driven, bargain prices, high end, and scalable niche. The sections also provide practical information like where readers can go to get logos developed and websites (e.g. storefront and products page) for their ecommerce store.
Tools to support everything from product development and product shipment
The sections providing information about the development and production of products is filled with useful insights. Those sections include “Developing your product,” “3 ways to make products,” “Vendors/suppliers,” “Customer service/Freelancers” and “Shipping.” Phillips really digs in and shares information most successful companies would keep a secret. He provides information on everything from how to select vendors to how to get shirts and promotional material done on a budget. There is a discussion on the pros and cons of three methods of producing products-print on demand, screen printing, and doing it yourself. He goes as far as listing the names of the vendors SBC uses.
Getting the word out
The sections discussing brand awareness include, “Marketing your store,” “Influencer marketing” and “Product drop strategy.” In “Marketing your store,” Phillips illustrates how to effectively use Facebook/Instagram ads. For example, he advises readers to visit Facebook’s Ad Library to see what ads competitors are putting out and how much they are spending. He also shows ads used in SBC’s ecommerce business. There is also a brief discussion on YouTube Ads, SEO marketing and events marketing. The section on influencer marketing provides insights on how to best engage with influencers you want to promote your brand. The insights shared about how to use Facebook and Instagram can work on other social media platforms (e.g. SnapChat and TikTok) too.
The section on helpful strategies to increase the number of people that hear about your products, provides tips on the when and how surrounding product releases. Phillips even provides examples from SBC. The section labeled “Hub building,” will be especially helpful to ecommerce store owners who do not have many followers or have low engagement on their social media pages. It discusses the importance of engaging with your target audience in more meaningful ways. For example, instead of using your social media pages as a sales channel, use it to connect your target audience with the things that are important to them.
All about the money
There is a very short section on pricing your products. This is followed by an explanation about and tips on how to use Shopify Capital, a loan program available to people who own a Shopify store. This section is helpful for any ecommerce business without a credit card or with a low credit limit. There is a longer discussion how to get customers to spend money and how to increase the amount customers spend during a single visit to an ecommerce site. This section provides helpful tips like, start by making the Shopify payment checkout process friendly rather than spending more money on advertising.
Bonus material
Phillips includes information that adds additional value to the book. For example, he includes a list of books for people beginning their entrepreneurial/self-development journey to read. Sprinkled throughout the book are pro tips and random hacks. These are parts of the book where Phillips takes a deep dive into a specific topic. He also provides a list of over two dozen Shopify apps that he personally uses in SBC’s Shopify store and believes will strengthen a Shopify ecommerce store.
Consider your choices carefully
There were a few places in the guide where Phillips suggests techniques that worked, that readers should decide if they want to use. One of those is a recommendation that readers make buy now, pay later services like Sezzle, QuadPay and AfterPay available to customers. Buy now, pay later services like Sezzle are attractive to customers because they do not require them to have a credit card. Next, do not charge interest or fees if a customer can make monthly payments on time. That sounds great. However, if one misses a payment or needs to change the payment day, fees can be more than double of what credit card charge. Making these sorts of options available to a customer may result in them spending outside their means and plunging into debt.
What not to expect
Anyone with a interest in launching an online store should strongly consider purchasing Phillips’ e-book. That being said, there are topics that he does not cover. This includes,
- Expenses involved in running an ecommerce site
- Tools he uses to track the expenses and project expenses
- Revenue vs profit
- Applying for a business credit line
Perhaps Phillips will update his book to include this information.
Summary
Justin Phillips has poured some love into, 7 figure fast track, a book written for people interested in opening an online store. It walks reader through several important aspects of opening and running the company. It provides useful information and practical insights. The book is written in a linguistically accessible manner. Furthermore, Phillips’ humor and positive personality makes the book come alive.
Whether you are just getting started or have an established e-commerce business, you will find what Phillips has generously shared to be of great use. Still on the fence, check out Phillips’ interview with Charles Smith from T-Shirt Millionaires. The interview is a good summary of the content of the book.
A few days after watching the interview went and purchased the ebook. Now I am going to use his book as a guide to launch my own ecommerce store.
If you use any information from his book to start or improve your ecommerce business send some love to Phillips on Instagram at @ihoenation.
