what's up guys in this video i get to
interview the owner of
probably the funniest shopify store i've
ever seen when i first found it i was
actually doing some redbubble product
research
and i was like what the heck is this
googled it ended up on this shopify
store
and the rest was history i was like
crying in laughter now unfortunately
the uh the owner wants to remain
anonymous so i'm not gonna be sharing
the shop
and this video is really just me and him
on a phone call
but there's a lot of good information on
the call
like he's running a successful shopify
print on demand store but there's a
non-print on demand component
that i think has a lot to do with the
level of success that he was able to
achieve
in a short period of time as you can see
over half a million dollars in sales
in less than a year so you guys aren't
going to want to miss miss this let's
get started
[Music]
what's up guys i am joined via phone
call
by barry who runs a pretty successful
shopify store as you can see in the
video thumbnail over half a million
dollars
in sales and it's a relatively new
shopify store that
i actually found doing redbubble
research and there's a
you know decent story behind it or an
interesting story behind it i want to
ask him about
how he was able to achieve this level of
success so uh barry thank you for being
here man
hey great great to be here appreciate it
ryan
yeah and uh i already did a little intro
on the video explaining that you know
we're not gonna
um share the shop because you're on
shopify
on my channel i don't talk too much
about shopify uh i primarily
talk about occupying what i call
internet real estate on the major
ecommerce marketplaces
and kind of what we discussed before we
were recording i don't want a bunch of
clones of your best sellers popping up
on these
more authoritative domains like amazon
and etsy and ebay so
we'll keep it private but again thank
you for being here man and
let me just start off by asking you what
led you to opening a shopify store as
opposed to uh jumping on like amazon or
somewhere else
ooh so
it was such a quick ramp up time it took
me a day
to get the site from buying it up buying
the domain
to literally having products ready to
sell
with print on demand nice and i don't
know exactly
if uh amazon is as quick
but i think i liked shopify because it
was
more branding related i felt like i
could like
if you orient the site in such a way you
can kind of create a
strong brand which i think if you're
going through amazon it's more
product versus brand yeah that's a great
point man and uh
i mean very valid too because typically
people ask if they should make like a
niche store
on a platform like etsy or redbubble you
know too where you can actually kind of
control the
a little bit more of the look and feel
of your shop whereas amazon is more
product driven but
that brings me to a a good point so
you are running a niche website um
specifically right you stick to one
niche
correct very specific all right and
would you maybe recommend that for
anybody that's looking to start shopify
or shopify print on demand
100 i think um
i run a niche like called a gag
site um and
has an element of like hilarity to it
it is i think i could have sold one-off
products on amazon but
i've got a catalog of products on the
store that it's almost like
it's almost like overkill the way the
store is oriented
and i think that actually is like the
brand the fact that i
like it's so niche is i think what
captures people's attention
yeah and let me ask like how and by the
way yes the website is
hilarious man like i was like crying in
laughter because i'm in on the meme
but um like how how often
can you estimate like are you seeing
multiple products ordered in an order
ooh uh you know
i say gosh i wish i had that breakdown
i think the average number of items
ordered per
order is like 1.2 items so okay
i don't know how that compares
relatively but um
yeah if i'm selling general merchandise
every you know every fifth person is
ordering two rather than one
yeah i thought maybe good but one thing
i want to clarify too
i i don't promote specific um
you know bundles buy one get the other
one
half off etc i'm sure the rate could be
higher
if i promoted those marketing
right yeah because with shopify you do
get to kind of control more of the
the different aspects of the site and i
know depending on you know you were
talking to me off of uh
the recording about how you use multiple
production partners for fulfillment and
it's not
really to your benefit to have like a i
mean
it is because i mean you still make more
money with more orders but sometimes
it's like if the same production partner
like you do use printful
even though you weren't a fan of their
their high costs but
um that's typically the one i lean
towards using but like if you fulfill
two products
through printful you'll for sure see a a
higher margin because they won't charge
you as much
for shipping but um you know if you sold
one through printful one through shop
uh through printfy you may not get that
same benefit
so yeah that's actually a really good
point that's a really good point because
if i'd probably retroactively gone back
customers don't realize what the
shipping costs are
so i would charge only a certain amount
to the customer and so not all that will
be passed through
and i think had i bundled yeah
maybe maybe reduce the number of pod
suppliers that i use
probably could have had cost savings
yeah and i'm actually just thinking
right now
so you um you mentioned that your
website it's it's
really funny the niche that you're in is
really funny it's got the shock value
and you're on shopify so like a big part
of why
i teach what i teach on my youtube
channel everybody watching thank you hit
that like button
um is that like it's so much easier to
convince somebody who goes to amazon
to buy something than it is to convince
somebody via an ad
on google or facebook to buy something
unless
you've got something that makes them
stop in their tracks and say oh my god
what is this i need to click that like i
need that
and i think you have at least one
product on your site
that is that for you and um you know
which one i'm talking about
and it's like man if you just somehow
got in there on the checkout process and
said
hey by the way do you want like 25 off a
t-shirt
with this order or something you know
that might work shoot man you're giving
me ideas where it's like i'm kicking
myself hearing this because you're right
i think that would help
um and yeah that's another element
i think that this is not something that
people
actively search for so
amazon you know number of searches a
month
it would have been less relevant this is
right
scrolling through the instagram page
seeing that ad
capture the attention um it has an
element of like throughout
virality yeah i agree i agree
do you wanna i guess we can wrap up soon
but do you want to
i know you have to go but anything you
can elaborate on the
challenges that you faced with
your i'm going to assume is the best
selling product on your site that is not
print on demand
challenges i mean you hear in the news
every day the supply chain
supply chain is uh ever i think
so many tutorials so many uh
from an e-commerce standpoint it's all
about marketing it's all about
advertising etc and like yes
i get it but the
when fulfillment and when the supply
chain becomes your
main focus i don't think that's a recipe
for success
and uh i've definitely experienced that
this past year
so
not an easy year
focus on your suppliers focus on your
systems
automate as much as you can i mean that
is biggest takeaway
yeah that's good advice man and um you
know definitely one of the benefits
right of using
printf i printful etc is that that
automation kicks in
but it look like you would you would
agree right the the one product that is
not
print on demand was your it was probably
the one that like generated the most
let's say ad
advertising interest right that brought
people to your site
uh yeah definitely and that was i think
i think when you hear stories of these
sites where it's like
hey you have one you know trying to
think about this for other
opportunities and it's have one best
seller
and have you know the second and third
compliments
and so it's trying to figure out hey
that second
product which should be a compliment the
second or third complement
am i trying to position that as like the
primary seller
or is it like best suited as like a
complimentary i think um
yeah those pairings are really important
big takeaways i have from last year yeah
so amen
congrats on your success and we talked a
little bit before about you know what's
next and
in addition to probably scaling this out
and seeing where it goes this year
um sounds like you you had some plans to
maybe open up a second store so
good luck with that and any any last
like parting
words parting wisdom that you can leave
the the viewers and again keep in mind
like we're not
too heavy on shopify um on this channel
um it's so easy to go down the rabbit
hole
reading uh your your great content etc
i think you just for so many people i'm
sure you instilled you know just
go and do it the tinker is gonna
have revisions with shopify from where
the store the design was at first to
where it is now
it's just you know get it going
and adapt on the fly i think don't
don't think overthink the startup too
much
yeah good advice i'm definitely good
definitely guilty of that so
dude it's so easy to do paralysis by
over analysis so that's good a good way
to end the interview man thank you for
being here i really appreciate it i
appreciate ryan