Adult Products E-Commerce in 2023 -Smart Moves
With the world becoming more digital and the economy more unstable — primarily because of COVID-19 during the last few years and crazy warlords — you can find plenty of people selling magic formulas to become wealthy entrepreneurs. Drop-shipping is one of these formulas.
No one can deny that the drop-shipping business model is an opportunity, and many people worldwide have managed to shift from a regular job to a drop-shipping business. But is this success also achievable in the pleasure products industry?
Thriving within the adult market is more a matter of doing homework and studying the business and how to compete with the big players.
When people see courses or books that promise to make them rich quickly, it is tempting to want to get involved. However, in the case of drop-shipping, it seems very easy: you pick a product and a vendor that will send that product directly to your customer once it's purchased on your site; buy the cheapest package for e-commerce in Shopify; set up a one-page shop for that product; invest your credit card limit in Google Ads and SEO for the first month and then Boom! You are the newest millionaire in town.
Or maybe it's not that easy.
First, you need to understand or do some research on the market, the product, the type of customers, and where they are located. Then, you have to negotiate with the vendor to decide on where the vendor will send the product from, the shipping rates, how much spread you can gain, what the vendor terms are, documentation and taxes. Once sorted, you must pay for the Shopify subscription and create the store.
Creating the store, even though Shopify is user-friendly, still requires the retailer's general knowledge of web design or design in general. Let’s consider that, up until this point, the product could be from any industry.
However, when it comes to SEO and advertising on Google Ads or social media, things become challenging when you are in the adult industry. So, your credit card will not be enough depending on how you start your new drop-shipping business.
Let’s start with SEO. For those of you that do not know, SEO means" “search engine optimization".” You have to optimize your page content to be found by your customers on search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, etc. If you have no idea how to go about this but want to go on with your drop-shipping business, you will have to pay to learn or have someone "do it for you. The first option would be the best since, by now, you should understand a bit about the industry and hence should be able to write content or optimize the content on your page for SEO once you learn how. The second option is more dangerous. The more you search for someone to sort the SEO issue for you, the more different offers you will get. However, from my experience, I will advise you not to hire an SEO specialist in the pleasure products market; it’s just a waste of money and time.
When you search on YouTube for how to advertise in Google Ads, you will get general advice for any product from any market — that’s the problem. For example, suppose you don’t account for restrictions on adults. In that case, you will either not even get through to put the ads live, or once you do, you will have your ad suspended or, worst-case scenario, your account will be banned due to google’s advertising policies that include prohibited content, prohibited practices, restricted content, and features. Depending on how you write the content of your ads or on your shop, your shop can fall into these prohibited or restricted categories. Hence, if you want to advertise your sex product on Google Ads, read GooAds'Ads’ policies carefully before moving on. If you don't, it can get frustrating.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest have advertising policies, and selling items such as sexy lingerie or a sex machine can be deemed unacceptable. It may even lead to getting your shop profile banned from those platforms.
So, the learning process can be annoying for drop-shippers because it demands more time and money than you expect. It might prove hard to control the inventory manually if you have more than one type of product, say a variety of products. You have to hire an inventory control application to manage your inventory, so when you add all of this to the terms you have agreed on with your vendor, your margin has to increase, and then the question is: are you still as competitive as you thought?
So, is drop-shipping a recommended model for adult retail? Of course, it is, and several good wholesalers in the market nowadays have embraced the drop-shipping model. However, thriving within the adult market is more a matter of doing your homework and studying the business and how to compete alongside the big players.
Depending on your budget, there are competent agencies in the adult market that can optimize your advertising campaign. In addition, there are user-friendly adult market advertising apps that can be used instead of Google Ads — such as Adsterra and Exoclick. Other cheaper solutions could include advertising your product on a sex blog or enrolling in affiliate programs.
Drop-shipping is a model that can be used by small online retailers who want to start in the adult market. However, keeping one’s feet on the ground and not relying on a seemingly magic solution to become successful overnight are the first steps to success.
WEBSITE SPEED
Speed is one of the most critical indicators of a website's potential for solid SEO and future success. If the website is slow when opened, chances are that Google will not rate the site high and that customers will leave the site and never return because of low user-friendliness. This can prove devastating, resulting in a very high bounce rate and search engines not picking up the site.
In ranking websites, Google takes into account several factors. One is the speed of the website. High-speed websites have a higher chance of ending up on the first page of Google search results. Google has stated that the optimal load speed for a website should be up to three seconds on any device, including computers, smartphones, and tablets.
“Page experience" is another factor that focuses on the customer’s user experience — and one of the critical components of a positive experience for visitors is, you guessed it right, page speed! You will immediately establish a professional first impression by making your website super fast. Conversely, a slow website will make visitors hesitate to revisit it even if its content is relevant to them.
According to professional SEO expert Neil Patel, 89% of search engine users say that they will not return to websites that load slowly. This is a good indication of just how vital website speed is.
This is especially the case when it comes to online shopping. You will most likely search for that item on another site because of an online retailer’s slow-loading website. Websites that are slow by just one second are reported to have a 7% lower conversion rate. Think about it! That is a lot of revenue loss just because of website speed. This will make your bounce rate on your store very high, and ultimately, your ability to sell your products will suffer, affecting your brand and credibility in a very negative way in the long run. Here are some tips to help avoid that:
CHECK YOUR WEBSITE’S SPEED
There are a variety of online tools that allow you to check your website'sWEBSITE'S loading speed, including Google Page Insights (https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/), GTmetrix (https://gtmetrix.com/), Pingdom (https://tools.pingdom.com/) and Think with Google (https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/testmysite/).
Remember, not all sites where you check your website speed will perform the test in actual 4G, though this is expected to change in 2023. The sites listed here will probably give you different results, so doing your detective work is advised. YouTube is also a great source for learning more about website speed and what you can do to improve it.
CONTACT A PROFESSIONAL SEO CONSULTANT
Using an SEO consultant is a great way to improve general SEO and ranking. However, make sure that the company you choose has a lot of experience in the field where you operate and the products that you sell or is at least familiar with your market. The general rules of SEO do not apply if you operate in a niche market. In this case, you may be better off learning to do the job yourself or educating someone in your company who understands the market to handle it. Hiring an SEO professional who doesn't understand your business is an easy way to throw money out the window.
WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO?
You have the power to do plenty! Start by educating yourself on all the aspects of website speed. A good place to look for more information is Moz.com, known as "the most trusted SEO company," with a website packed with educational content for all levels of SEO expertise.
For starters, to make the front page of your store load the fastest, it should be as clean as possible without tons of banners, effects, and so on. Too many bells and whistles will slow your website down and will cause it to load more slowly. The provider of your site is also a very significant factor. The best ones will have a solution for JavaScript, which often plays a huge role in website speed. Test more than just the front page. Go through your collections and product pages and simplify as much as you possibly can on your own.
Google also has some tools that can help you to keep track of your pages' performance. Google Search Console is a great tool, and it's free. Once you connect your website to it, Google Search Console will list the pages that have loading times longer than 2.5 seconds and will reveal the technical issues preventing your pages from performing better.
If your speed is bad, but your conversion rate is high, you are doing something right. Nevertheless, small changes can be made to speed up your site to reach an even higher rate of conversion. I hope these tips are useful, Don't hesitate to contact me for more info. I wish you all success and a happy New Year.