Plantasia People/Cottage Core Co. (now defunct) was an experimental drop-shipping e-commerce store.
Purpose: I created Cottage Core to learn e-commerce, digital marketing, and drop-shipping.
Objective: Sell products and build a strong brand presence.
Approach: During the spring of 2020 (aka quarantine), there was a growing trend where people started romanticizing a simpler life, aka Cottage Core. Since successful drop-shipping relies heavily on market demand and keyword optimization, I knew the burgeoning Cottage Core trend would help propel our brand growth.
The premise of drop-shipping is to create a brand that looks reputable and trustworthy for a targeted customer to directly purchase from. Although the products are manufactured/produced in china and can be bought elsewhere, I need my customer to believe that I’m the right brand to purchase from.
- The first step to drop-shipping is to choose a product that is in high demand. Because everyone was in quarantine at the time, home decor was selling hot. I also had a niche (cottage core), that I could use to differentiate my products. Cottage Core also had very low competition when I started.
- Once you have a product, your next step is to build a shop and a social presence. I used Shopify to host my store, as it was easy to set up and also the most popular hosting option. I used Oberlo to connect Aliexpress inventory to my Shopify store. I configured the site with Facebook’s Pixel, so that I could accurately track user interaction from ad spend. I also created a Pinterest and a Tumblr blog, both sharing and curating cottage core content.
Your site needs to look trustworthy, which you can achieve with 1) good site design – does the site look professional? and 2) social proof (aka reviews). Social proof could be hacked via a Shopify plugin that would transfer reviews from Aliexpress to your own store. You can also create your own reviews.
I stopped uploading pinterest content after I had closed shop, but the blog continued to rise in popularity
- Lastly, I set up my Facebook ads. I created a short video file that showcased our key product. My first ad campaign focused broadly so that we could narrow down our target demographic. I then narrowed down our demographic and area as per the results of those initial tests.
the two main campaigns i ran once I had a better demographic understanding from initial keyword tests
this is the video ad that I ran, in .gif form
Project Duration: Due to complications with Aliexpress, I shut down shop after one month of operations.
Outcome: I received my first order within a week! However, when I went to fulfill the order, Aliexpress would not allow me to drop-ship their products. When I had decided to close , I had spent around $125 in Facebook Ads, and broke even with $125 in product sales.
Takeaways:
- Drop-shipping is incredibly easy to set up.
- Retargeted audiences convert much easier.
- Pinterest is an incredible platform for brand impressions.