Don't fall for it! Why I don't recommend going into eCommerce in 2024

It's brutally hard to make a living in eCommerce right now. In this high-level conversation, I'll discuss some of the drivers, how this has impacted my small online business, and warn against the rampant ret rich quick schemes that are telling the public bad information all over KZbin.

[@Mexicobeanpole]

I was self employed in e-commerce from 2004-2023. I was what I consider successful for a lot of that time, as it was more money than I ever made from a traditional job. But, it took 2 years to make it full time paycheck profitable. Then, at the end, I believe that I should have closed the business when Covid shut down happened. Product prices significantly went up and never came back down. Shipping costs went up every year. The last 2 years I did it was clawing and tough. I closed all my websites in 2023. I honestly think that ship has sailed. And yes, most people don’t know about the China situation. It’s unreal. I was an eBay seller with 500k in sales before the Chinese take over. Never did those kind of numbers again.

[@kateingram6987]

Wow, this is fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing this with us!

[@beautyfromwithin3813]

Thank you for sharing information.

[@marjoriebevan6982]

Thank you so much for this information Heather. I wondered where you were as I had not seen you for a while. I am in Australia and as much as many of us have tried really hard since the "V" event to buy Australian it is becoming more difficult to do so. I am noticing that the social platforms are inundated with ads that assure you they are Australian but if you place an order your tracking shows it is coming from China. Same with eBay. "Local seller" does not mean anything. It is so unfair that small US businesses are being affected by your government biases towards Chinese sellers. I guess the links between your president and the Chinese is strong. Good luck. Would love to hear more from you.

[@terrysuemakesvideosforyou9940]

Thank you so much Heather! This was really great and concise. Alot of people do not understand how a small company can work and what they are up against in today's marketplace. It was so nice to hear from you on this topic! I think everyone is struggling right now in this economy.

[@nereidofdoom]

Hi, Heather. Good advice. ❤

[@AureliasMyth1]

I find this very interesting. I find myself curious as to how you are making money or if you're even able to make a living, but it seems rude to just ask. The inner workings of businesses (and many other things) is interesting.

[@CysterWigs]

Not rude at all! I'm happy to share. I work a six-figure day job as an eCommerce technology consultant and market analyst. The tide turned against DTC eCommerce in 2018 when mobile-first indexing became all the rage. That is a very labor intensive way to build a website that almost requires a headless architecture model and a lot of IT talent to maintain. I either had to scale as quickly as humanly possible to make that viable or downgrade it into a fun side hustle. I chose the latter. I'm still an influencer, but now that influence is in B2B technology and my primary platform is LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/heatherhershey1/