I spent about seven years building and maintaining the e-commerce website for a shop that sold a widely available consumer product. During that time, I was also deeply involved in marketing and provided strategic advice to help grow the business.
The e-commerce function we built was designed for local SEO, allowing customers to find products and place orders for local pickup or delivery. It was never intended as a national e-commerce solution because we understood that competing on a national level in this industry wouldn’t work.
The previous owner also owned another business that bought large quantities of product from the shop, artificially inflating its turnover and profitability. When the business was sold to a new owner, that advantage was overlooked. Despite my attempts to advise, the new owner focused on competing nationally, going up against large retailers with bigger budgets. This ultimately led to the business’s failure, as the wrong strategy was pursued.
The key lesson here is that understanding and leveraging your unique advantage is essential. Without fully grasping what sets your business apart, you can’t capitalise on it effectively. The business’s downfall was a direct result of ignoring this fundamental insight.
If he had recognised the advantage was in the locality, he would have focused on marketing the shop, and not burning resources fighting big players on a national scale. He also should have recognised that a large proportion of the annual revenue was being generated by a single account, which in my opinion, is a massive red flag and should be avoided at all costs.
In the end, this experience underscores the importance of respecting expertise and being willing to adapt. Ask questions, scrutinise the numbers, and listen to experience.
