How Fiverr can Help You Scale Up Your E-commerce BusinessRecipe for e-commerce success:
- Buy loads of cheap products
- Create a website and sell online
- Hire Ton of full time employees
- Scale up by raising millions
All Wrong.
The internet is an equalizer in many respects, and e-commerce is one of them. That’s true even now, as the world works its way through a slow economic recovery.
In fact, it’s especially true now! There’s no better time to seize the day.
There will be over 2 BILLION (yes, there’s a big “B for Billion”) online customers this year. And these projections were from pre-pandemic time.
But how do you tap into that nearly-one-third of humanity that’s shopping online? And when you do, how do you reach more and more of them?
Enter Fiverr, and the wonderful world of gig work.
What is Fiverr?
Fiverr is an online market for freelance services. It’s been around since 2010. It’s name comes from the selling point that freelance services offered on the site start as low as $5.
You might wonder how much Fiverr costs:
Well, it’s kind of free. It’s free to make an account and use said account to hire freelancers.
But Fiverr takes a cut of whatever you pay to the freelancer.
The process is usually like so:
When you buy a gig, the money goes first to Fiverr, who holds it in escrow while the gig is completed. Once the work is done, you can approve the finished product and the seller will get 80% of what was paid (20% is kept by Fiverr).
In Fiverr, freelancers are “Sellers” offering their services to “buyers”, who are businesses.
It’s easy to see a freelancer’s client history on Fiverr. Ratings are out of five and usually with some comments. Freelancers can also rate the businesses with whom they work.
Most Fiverr gigs are on a project-by-project basis. A lot of the work you need to get done can and will be done in this format. You look for services you want to buy, find a seller and service that looks good, buy it, and then you’re done.
But Fiverr also lets you buy milestone-based projects. This is for longer projects that need intermediate points of collaboration, communication, etc.
Now, let’s talk about what you can actually get done on Fiverr.
The short version, of course, is just about anything.
Fiverr is a huge marketplace, and that means there are loads of niches you can pay for.
But the more realistic answer: it would be worth looking into fields that are popular among contractors. That way you can choose the right combination of operating cost and worker qualification (and quality).
So with that said, here are some of the most popular services offered on Fiverr right now:
That’s far from all of them, just some of them. Other popular categories include illustration, SEO, translation, data entry, and even book covers.
Fiverr Business: Is it for me?
If you’ve been looking into Fiverr, you’ve probably heard of Fiver Business. That’s just Fiverr, but expanded for team efforts.
The default plan lets you add up to 50 team-members (and you can contact them if you need more). And with recent acquisition of AND CO, it’s easy for freelancers to do business while staying accountable to their work.
What’s great, you can share freelancers with your team and they can all work together.
This includes the ability to manage budgeting for multiple freelancers and oversee everyone’s progress holistically, among other things.
The other main selling point of Fiverr Business is that you get access to a unique catalog of qualified freelancers who are relevant to your business.
Do you need it?
The size of your business is certainly one important factor here, but the other is really just how much collaboration your business needs in contracting out gig work.
If you have a team who needs to buy gigs, and collaboration between more than one team member and the seller is important, then Fiverr Business is more likely to be worth your time.
But if you are alone and can handle most of the contracting yourself,
it’s probably not necessary.
You could even share a normal Fiverr account.
It’s good to keep in mind, however, as it could be useful later down the road when your e-commerce business grows more. It’s best at handling multiple projects at a time. Also, Fiverr Business is usually free for the first year.
E-commerce Business –
From Idea to First Sale
At the beginning of this post, I talked about how the barrier to entry for starting an e-commerce business is a lot lower than people think. That’s true, but the first barrier is the most important.
What is that barrier?
Planning.
You really can run a successful e-commerce venture that keeps on growing without a ton of resources or personal connections. But you need to make sure that there are clearly defined steps, goalposts, and that the math works out.
Here’s the thing: Fiverr can be an excellent asset to a budding e-commerce business. But your fundamentals need to be there first, or you might pour money down the drain and waste your time.
So, first things first:
What are you selling, and does it have a lot of potential? Is it something with room for growth?
It should go without saying that you should be interested in what you sell…not for some high-minded philosophical reason, but just practically speaking, it’s easier to work on your business that way.
If your ecommerce site is selling physical products, you can figure out some ideas by looking at popular marketplaces.
For example: Amazon’s best sellers.
Note that there’s a huge list of categories—the screenshot only shows half of it—and the list is updated HOURLY.
You can repeat this by looking at eBay’s top products page, or even more niche marketplaces. This is helpful at the beginning, but it’s also helpful later down the line, when you’re looking to expand or update your offering.
Remember that this doesn’t just tell you what’s good at selling, it tells you what’s selling at that moment.
So if you’re able to get information on trends and any personal insights you have, you’ll be able to strike a balance between selling stuff that’ll fail to earn profits back in a year and stuff that is hot now, and can still be in demand later.
The next step, if you’re selling physical items, is super important:
How are you getting those items to sell to people?
The whole reason you don’t have a big barrier to entry with e-commerce is that you don’t have to run a factory yourself to sell things on your site.
But you DO need to make sure your supplier is highly reliable.
In fact, reliability is arguably the single most important factor. Yes, even over cost.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t take cost into account, but being certain your customers will mostly get products on-time and without defects, or that you won’t be suddenly hit with hefty obligations to the manufacturer, is essential for stability. You need a baseline level of stability to grow.
Once you’ve worked that out, it’s time to work on how your business will interface with the world.
That means things like:
- Your brand name and general brand identity
- Following that, a domain name for your website
- Your logo
- Your website itself
This is an area where you may want to consider bringing in Fiverr.
Now, a word of caution:
I am NOT recommending you pay someone $5 to figure out your brand name, and then move on to the next step.
Simply that, once you already have some ideas and direction, some will find it useful to pay someone who can help you get that final version.
Fiverr can also help you a lot in customizing your site. In fact, it’s probably one of the best services you can buy. It will save you a ton of time, and will probably be better than what you can do.
However, before that, you need to figure out how you’re hosting and building your site:
If you’re using a webhost and installing WordPress or some other content management system (CMS) on it, hiring a freelancer is going to be particularly helpful. Those systems are trickier for beginners to customize well.
But if you’re using a software as a service (SaaS) e-commerce provider like Shopify or BigCommerce, you won’t need to do very much: the hosting is built-in and the themes are easier for beginners to customize with flexibility.
Anyway, the last few steps are to figure out your shipping method and services (assuming you’re selling physical products) and have a marketing strategy.
For shipping, your own research is best.
For marketing, it’s also best if you design your plan. You can buy marketing consulting gigs on Fiverr, but it’d be safer if the fundamentals are from you or a highly reputable consultant.
Additionally, just as you need to choose which manufacturer you use, which shipping service you use, and how you host and/or build your website, you can choose marketing and SEO tools.
There’s a huge range of marketing tools, and SEO tools. Most are software as a service (SaaS) toolkits with multiple features that combine ease of use with power. You can check out our lists of the best email marketing software and best SEO software for more on that.
Once you’ve got a plan though, and when you have software, Fiverr’s freelancers can be super helpful. There are often team or account logins that you can give to Fiverr’s sellers in the aforementioned software.
Marketing is very important, especially if your business is new, but it’s also time consuming and experience can go a long way. Marketing gigs are popular on Fiverr because they’re so cost-effective.
But this is all more about beginning steps. Once your e-commerce site is more established, there are other ways you can use Fiverr to scale up:
Life beyond first sale
One important thing to note right away is that the instances identified above as good points to contract out to freelancers are still good for that even as you grow.
For example: even if you’ve been earning steady profits for a bit, you might want to tweak your logo or revamp your website. You can always head to Fiverr to get some design pitches, or tweaked variations of your current one.
And BTW, if you are DIY type, you can design your logo at Fiverr’s Logo maker
Marketing is another good area for freelance work. Like I said, it’s very important at your beginning stage. But it’s also essential to growth, because marketing is what lets you expand your audience and customer base.
Many e-commerce sites, once they’ve reached some steady sales, are reading to step into email marketing.
Fiverr’s sellers could help here. For example, by designing newsletters:
You may have noticed that in the screenshot, I set a pretty limited price range. Note that all the sellers have average 5-star ratings, and the latter two have a lot of client reviews to back their rating up.
You can apply this to other important avenues of marketing as well, like social media campaigns.
You could also improve your marketing strategy by making your sales funnel better and getting freelancers to help with that.
A simple example: if one of the last steps of your sales funnel is the checkout process, maybe make that checkout process simpler? A Fiverr freelancer could help you set up sleek-looking checkout pages with guest-checkout options.
There’s good reason to think this could be effective. A PayPal study from a few years back found that, of sites with PayPal enabled, PayPal checkouts converted a lot more quickly than the non-PayPal options.
It could be a bit biased, of course, but more than highlighting PayPal’s role, it highlights the importance of simple and secure checkouts. Fiverr sellers can help you get those things right.
You could also get gig workers to help you add new sources of revenue.
A great example of this would be adding upsells:
Basically, optional upgrades you offer your customers. This will be more or less relevant depending on what you’re selling, but if it is relevant to you, it can increase your revenue a bit.
Adding upsells to your site can sometimes be a bit complicated if you don’t know web design, but someone on Fiverr could do it without breaking your bank.
Lastly, of course, there’s SEO, or search engine optimization. SEO can always be improved, and the bigger your e-commerce site becomes, the more the terms you target may change and expand.
SEO is a popular category of service offered on Fiverr, but you do need to make sure that the seller isn’t using any under-handed tactics and is following the steps of your SEO plan.
Preparing for Good Times – Scaling Up
Heard about Beardbrand before?
Eric Bandholz was just another guy with a great beard when he launched BeardBrand.
He started BeardBrand way back in 2012. At that time it was just a Youtube channel and a blog.
While creating content Eric realized that there were not enough good beard products. So, he launched their first product in 2013. The catalyst for bringing their first customers was the New York Times article which featured his blog.
Knowing his blog was going to be featured on NY Times, Eric and his team rallied to turn his blog into an e-commerce store selling beard products.
They barely managed to launch it the day before the article was published.
That rallying helped them create an e-commerce site which is making thousands of dollars of sales every single day.
The whole point of bringing this is to make you realize that in e-commerce things move really fast. If you are not ready for it, you will “miss the wave”.
It goes without saying that scaling at the right moment is very important in the e-commerce space.
And when that moment comes, which areas of e-commerce do you think will need scaling up?
Here they are:
- Support Staff / VA
To handle increased traffic and customer queries
- Data Analyst / Business Analyst
To analyse profitability across products and find new profitable products to sell
- Web Developers
To develop new functionalities and maintain existing site
- Graphic Designers
To design new product pages, newsletters, landing pages, etc.
- Paid Ad Specialist
To manage and optimize ads across Google, Facebook, etc.
- Content Creators
To increase traffic you will need more content targeted to your audience.
Content creators would include Content Writers, Video Editors, etc.
- Server Admin
To manage your servers and ensure there is no downtime.
Not needed if you are on Shopify, BigCommerce, etc.
- Marketing Specialist
To identify cross sell and upsell opportunities
- Finance Manager
To manage cash flow and identify potential cash crunch scenarios
- Team Manager
To handle increased team size
- Operations Manager
To oversee overall operations of your business
Did I mention how easy it is to hire all of the above with Fiverr?
Why choose Fiverr?
1. Sellers for every service at every stage of your e-commerce journey
On Fiverr you will get sellers / professionals who target from startups to medium & large size organizations.
So, whether you are just starting out on a shoestring budget or you are a million dollar organization – you will find professionals for your needs on Fiverr.
E-commerce big names like L’oreal, Unilever, etc. are already using Fiverr.
Source: Fiverr Q3-2020 Shareholder-Letter
2. Only platform which caters to a startup
Fiverr is the only platform I know which caters to a startup at their budget. There is no other platform which provides ANY services at the $5 mark.
For example, let us take the case for “article to video” service. If you are in
e-commerce and you are creating content, this can be a very useful way to expand your traffic source.
In Fiverr, as you can see, the prices for this starts at $5.
You just don’t get such services on other platforms.
I know I know what you are thinking here. Of course the quality of something created for $5 and $50 will be different. But that’s not what I am talking about here. This is about getting any services on a startup budget. You need something to get started on your e-commerce business journey.
And $5 content will be the starting point.
3. Covers all aspects of ecommerce business needs
From Logo to landing pages, you will find Fiverr to have professionals for all
e-commerce needs.
And of course, all of these, at $5 to $1000 price range.
4. Buyer protection in place
For all the first timers, here’s the thing: Sellers can only take your money when you approve their work. Without that, they can’t just take money and run.
How to choose the right seller for e-commerce jobs:
1. See their work
Duh! Isn’t that obvious? Of course it is. But how many times do we forget that and pay attention to other things like price, nationality, etc.
2. Identify sellers using Fiverr Badges
It’s super easy to identify good quality sellers using Fiverr badges.
Here’s what I mean:
And here’s what each of these badges mean:
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Top Rated Seller | Seller has delivered minimum 100 orders on time with minimum 4.7 ratings |
| Pro Verified | Fiverr vetted professionals for quality and service |
| Fiverr’s Choice | Sellers who are loved for their superb work and delivery |
| Rising Talent | Sellers recommended by Fiverr’s editors for their high potential |
3. Do a 360 review for large ones
(for the paranoid ones)
If Fiverr badges don’t convince you (highly unlikely), you can do a more thorough background by checking Seller’s LinkedIn profile.
See the images below. After checking the LinkedIn profile of this sweet lady,
I am 100% sure, she will create content which will be 100% top notch.
4. Check other details of Seller’s profile
To find out if the seller is really taking his gigs seriously on Fiverr you can check Seller’s Last Delivery, Average Response Time, Orders in Queue & Save to Gigs I love, on his profile.
Real Life Examples on best ways to use Fiverr:
1. Buy an e-book and use Fiverr to turn it into a lead magnet
That’s the technique Manuel Suarez, founder of Attention Grabbing Media did. He bought ebooks from theplrstore.com and paid $10 to the designer on Fiverr and used those ebooks as lead magnet to generate leads.
Listen to the entire interview of Manuel Suarez here
2. Get Influencers on Fiverr to market your product
Matthew Gates wasn’t a marketing guy. He had built a product but didn’t know how to sell it.
So he hired a few sellers on Fiverr who had really good social following to promote this product. One of the sellers had a stint with MTV but was still hustling on Fiverr.
Using just 4 gigs on Fiverr, he got some massive traffic increase
(from 100 – 200 to 5000-6000 per day) on his site
You can read his entire article on hackernoon to find out more.
3. Turn your physical business to digital with Fiverr
A lot of physical businesses had a tough time in 2020 due to Covid 19 pandemic.
Lot of them got closed and few that survived had to move online completely.
One such business was heyrooted.com. Prior to Covid 19, Kay Kim and Olivia Claparols’s NYC business was coming from offline channels. They had their site but it was too basic and didn’t contribute anything to the revenue.
In June 2020, they changed their entire business model to go digital. They started working with Fiverr Illustrators, developers, shopify experts, etc. to improve their website, do paid ads and increase their conversion.
They were extremely happy with the results they got from Fiverr.
To put it in their own words:
The fact that Fiverr has freelancers on their platform from all over the world is extremely enticing because it just broadens the entire talent pool. One of the greatest things about Fiverr is that while we are sleeping, someone is working because of the time difference.
Read more about them in the Fiverr’s 2020-Q3 Shareholder’s letter.
Conclusion
To conclude I am reminded of what Brutus said in Julius Caesar:
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
This was the exact quote which Paul Allen used, in Dec 1974, to convince Bill Gates to stop playing poker long enough and finally do something about the new Microcomputer Kit that was launched.
I really can’t emphasize enough how important scaling your business at the right moment is.
And today’s online platforms like Fiverr makes it possible to scale the business at a moment’s notice – without breaking your bank account.
At the end of the day, the e-commerce landscape is bright. You can get a lot done right now with gig work, and the amount you invest in it can return greatly for your e-commerce site.
Why wait?
Happy business building!
