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Podcasts about business and stuff.
G'day, i'm Austin. Over the past four years I've made over $25,000,000 online with online business and the only job that I've ever had was working at Foot Locker in my late teens, and in this video I'm gonna break down three very important things and lessons that I learned while working at Foot Locker that have helped me make millions with ecommerce. Let's jump into it. So that's me right there working at Foot Locker.
Austin:I believe that was Boxing Day two thousand and fifteen and so that's when the store is absolutely packed, so many people in there and there's me standing in my striped shirt. And in this video I wanna break down what I learned selling shoes at Foot Locker amongst other things that has made me millions by '24. And here's the proof, I've made quite a lot of money with ecom over the past few years and millions of this being profit. And these are the three things that working at Foot Locker taught me and this casual job that I had that I'd work every Friday night for five hours and then on the Christmas holidays and school holidays, I'd work a bit more. These were three very important sales principles I learned and how they can help you make a lot of money with ecommerce too.
Austin:I think they're very interesting. Now the one. So my old boss Wayne and then also the two I see, Adrian and also Nick, they always used to say to me, sell those s threes. And then we would review the stats at the end of every shift and see how many s threes I sold. An s three was like an accessory and a complimentary item, something that wasn't the shoes but it was things that went with the shoes and they would ingrain it into my head, sell the s threes, get more s three sales, focus on those s threes because it doesn't matter about the total amount you were selling at the store when it came to just shoes, if you could sell more s threes that was a very big positive.
Austin:Now in the e commerce terms, this is increase your average order value. Why? Well, people are coming into Foot Locker for shoes most of the time. They're coming in to get shoes whether it's for running, whether it's for sport, whether it's for basketball, whatever they wanted to do with the shoes or just casual wear And they were already in there to get shoes and say I'd help them through the process, got their sizing, gave them a few to try on, they put them on, they liked one, they're gonna go with those. We're on our way to the counter.
Austin:Now this is crucial. I have some opportunities here because what do you walk past on the way to the counter? If you've ever noticed in most of these stores, it's generally the rack of socks or you've got weatherproofing spray or shoe cleaner or those kind of accessories. Now those are the s threes. Those are the things, the upsells, the complementary items that are very easy to add to the overall order.
Austin:Someone came in to get shoes, but why not get a new pair of socks? Why not get that waterproofing spray in time for winter? There's just such good angles there. And what this taught me very early on is that, yes, in ecommerce, just like in a real shoe store, people will come to that store looking to buy maybe one product. The core product that is gonna solve the majority of their problem, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't ask if they want some extra things.
Austin:That is gonna help them solve that problem more quickly, make their overall experience with the main product better, and so offer complimentary items. Have your main item on your drop shipping store that offers supporting items that you may never run ads for. I have complimentary items on some of my stores that I've never run an ad for. They're just there to support the main product, to be used as up sells and to bundle together, and so offer complimentary items, and especially items that help the customer solve the core problem that they came there for. Now if you went into Foot Locker and I was there to help you out and say you needed some running shoes, but it was wintertime.
Austin:Well, on top of that, it's very easy to justify some waterproofing spray. You're getting running shoes, you're gonna go for runs outside, you might as well waterproof them so your feet don't get soaked in the rain. Or you came in to get some basketball shoes, well how about you get some of the specific Nike basketball socks that are perfect to go with your KDs or your Kyries or your Kobies? Like it just fits so well. Now what doing this does is it helps you make more per transaction.
Austin:And so if you're spending the time and the money to get someone to your drop shipping store and they're gonna buy the main thing, you might as well give them the option to spend more with you because there will always be a percentage of people that will say yes. And in e comm, this is what I call an asymmetric return. A little bit in, a lot out. You can set up some upsell funnels once, and then they keep producing money for you and extra revenue for you on autopilot. You don't need to do anything else.
Austin:A really great app for this is called Zipify One Click Upsell. It's an app I've been using for years, made a lot of extra money with it. It's boosted my revenue on all stores that I run, so it's worth having it. But the key thing I will finish on with this and selling those s threes and offering additional items to boost your average order value is that you can lose a sale if the offers you're making are not relevant. Because the customer will be like, what is this guy doing?
Austin:So if they come in to buy some running shoes and then I say, hey, do wanna get some no show socks with that? That's probably a okay example. They'll be like no because who wears no shows with running shoes? If any of you do I apologize but that's a bit weird. But say I was offering waterproofing spray for basketball shoes and they only plan to play indoors.
Austin:They'd be like what are you on about? What why are you offering me this? Or you try and constantly push to upsell them innersoles which was something that was the more expensive side of s threes. You get those innersoles in there, gives you more cushioning, makes the shoes feel more comfortable. But if they have said no, I'm not interested, there may come a point where if you keep recommending all these things, they'll be like, you know what?
Austin:Actually, I don't want these anymore. And you've kind of discouraged someone from buying. So the core part here is that if you are going to offer these up sells, which I 100% recommend that you do, at least have the option for people to spend more money with you when you're running a drop shipping store, but don't be too pushy with them and make sure that they are relevant to the core product that they're buying. It makes sense for someone to add them to their order. So that's principle number one I learned.
Austin:Sell those s threes. Increase your average order value by offering related items. The next one, have you tried ultra boosts before? Now this will make sense. In ecom, is all about focusing on the benefits.
Austin:Now there were these shoes and you may have tried them called Adidas Ultra Boosts. Extremely comfortable shoes. They're probably some of the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn. So comfortable in fact that for most of my shifts working at Foot Locker, those were the shoes that I would wear. It would be Adidas Ultraboosts.
Austin:Now if someone comes into the store and I was to say, have you tried some Ultraboost before? They'd be like, what? What's so special about these shoes? Oh, well, you know, it's got this amazing foam technology and it's got all this, you know, intricate design and these materials and it's got all these bells and whistles. It's Adidas premium foam technology.
Austin:Like if I just went off on a tangent with all the specifics, they would lose interest. But if I just told them that they are the comfiest shoes you will wear, I wear them right now and I wear them every shift that I work here in a shoe store out of all the shoes that I could wear because they are so damn comfortable. If I just said something like that, they'd be like, I wanna try these on. I wanna see if this guy is telling the truth. So really they don't care about the foam.
Austin:They don't care about the tech. They don't care about all the specifics. The customer just cares about the benefits. They care about what's in it for them. The fact that you're gonna wear such comfortable shoes that your feet aren't gonna hurt when you're working all day.
Austin:I wear them all day at Foot Locker during my shifts, during the school holidays, super comfortable, my feet aren't sore. Great. Now we're positioning all the features of say super thick foam or a special material that the foam is made out of and we're just focusing on the benefits and what someone's gonna get from wearing those shoes. And this all really starts with understanding what someone wants. Someone doesn't want fancy foam, they want comfortable shoes.
Austin:Someone doesn't want this special blend of materials that make the sole of a shoe. They just care that it's grippy. So when you can understand what someone wants and you position everything about the products that you're selling with the benefits you're gonna get people's attention and they're gonna buy it at much higher rates. I really like doing this in product descriptions for my drop shipping stores because that's one of the main things they're gonna see especially on mobile. You see the images, you see the price and the product title and a few other bits and pieces, but as you're scrolling, it's really the job in my opinion of the product description to convince someone to buy, and I use the QSBG formula.
Austin:We start with a question. Are you suffering from sore feet? Do your feet hurt after a long day at work? Solution. Well, with these shoes you can put them on and you feel like you're walking on clouds.
Austin:Feel like you're walking on marshmallows. You got the question illustrating the problem, and then got the solution positioning the product as the solution to that problem. Then you focus more on the benefits, talk about all the specific things and amazing benefits that this product has to offer, and you finish with a guarantee to make it a no brainer for someone to say yes. You want someone thinking when they look at your product description, this was made for me. And when you understand what someone's problem is, when you understand why they came into Foot Locker to buy the shoes, then you can position the product as the solution to the problem they've been facing.
Austin:Benefits, benefits, benefits. And always remembering that the customer is thinking what is in it for me? That's what they're thinking about and that's okay. And so we need to position everything to do with our products in the benefit of the customer. That's the thing I learned is that you gotta focus on the benefits.
Austin:And the last major principle I learned is from the question, do you have the app? Now in e comm this is focusing on lifetime value. And so I've got someone in, they're interested in shoes, great. We've figured out what shoes they want, we've got some s threes on the way through, I focused on the benefits through the entire sales process and now we're at the counter. This is where I ask them or used to ask them.
Austin:It's funny how I remember these things. I'd say, hey, do you have the Foot Locker app? Or if you can download it, get 10% off. That question alone got so many people to open up their phone, download the app. They're already there.
Austin:It's free to do. Just by getting the app, they're getting 10% off. Now why is this important? We've got someone to the counter. They were about to spend full price and now we're offering them a discount.
Austin:Well, it's because if we can get their details, they are more likely to become a return buyer. I'm sure Foot Locker had this intricate network of follow-up emails or messages or special push notification offers that came through their app, whatever it is. And with a drop shipping store, if you can get someone's contact details you can follow-up with them again and again through email offering different products and getting them to come back and buy. So the purpose behind asking them if they wanna download the app wasn't just to really push them over the line with making the purchase because sometimes I would have brought this in a little bit earlier in the process and say, hey, by the way, if you're just shopping around, all good. Wanted to let you know, if you download our app, you can get 10% off.
Austin:So anything you see on the wall, you get 10% off that just by getting the app. Takes thirty seconds to download and you get 10% off. So occasionally it was used in that context, but it was more so at the end and it was so we could retain that information about the customers and then incentivize them to come back and buy again because return buyers have higher profit because you're not paying for acquisition anymore. You paid to get them in the front door initially. Say with Foot Locker, they paid all this money for marketing and advertising to get someone to even come into the store to begin with.
Austin:And with drop shipping, you're spending money on Facebook and Insta ads or TikTok ads or YouTube ads to get someone in the door. And so now that they're there, we wanna make sure we don't lose them. We wanna make sure that even if they don't buy, we still have their contact details so we can get them to come back again. And if they do buy, we want to be able to contact them again as well to incentivize them to buy it again. And with return customers, we're not having to pay to get them in the door again.
Austin:They're already here, we already have their details which makes any further sale you get from an existing customer that much more profitable. You wanna collect their contact details, you wanna offer a discount for those details to incentivize them because if you just say, give me your email address, they'll be like, no. No one's gonna do that. But if you offer a discount in exchange for their details, there'll be a percentage of people that will. Could be between five to 15% depending on how good your pop ups are and you're really playing the long game here.
Austin:And so what this taught me is that just by asking if they have the app, getting them on board with using the app, It was really about playing the long game here. They didn't worry about losing 10% of the sale on the current sale that they're about to get, they wanted to look at the long term vision. They wanted to be able to contact this customer in the future and with drop shipping it goes the same way. Getting someone's contact details through a great targeted email pop up is very important because now you have a list that you can keep contacting and generating sales from. So those are three very important sales and marketing principles that I learned from selling shoes in my late teens at Foot Locker.
Austin:So I hope you've enjoyed this video, you can take something away from this and if you wanted a full step by step guide on how to start your own profitable drop shipping store, and these are some of the techniques that I've weaved in over my years making all this money with econ, but there's plenty more. And if you want to see a full step by step guide on how to use all of them to get started as a beginner, then I've actually just made a free course video on my channel. Six and a half hours step by step, no opt in, no funny business, you just watch it, I give you all the templates for everything as well, it's all in there. So I'll link that on the screen now, go and watch that if you want a full step by step guide on how to do everything. I hope you've enjoyed this video and I'll see you in the next one.