How to Sell Online: The Single Best Pieces of Advice From 41 Successful Ecommerce Entrepreneurs
By Editor 
It’s always a good idea to learn from experts in your field.
Today we decided to feature a roundup of 41 of our favorite success stories, and the single best piece of advice they offer to new merchants. These stores sell everything from apparel to surfboards to furniture to animal onesies. Four of them got their start by crowdfunding their products. They’re based in nearly a dozen countries around the world. And they’ve all found terrific success selling online.
1. America Party Gear
“Get your site fundamentals down first. Make sure you get SEO right, have a site optimized for all screens, and make sure your design is top notch.” – Sean Lee
2. Fit Little Bride
“Define your desired customers by what their interests are, what motivates them to purchase, what they like and who they want to be. If you design your storefront and products to meet all of their needs and stay true to that brand, your company will be the first thing they think of when they are ready to make a purchase.” – Caydi and Alex Zerega
3. Project Repat
“Find ways to tell the story of your makers. Spend time getting to know your makers, and tell their story when you are telling your story as well. People want to see where their products are made, and it creates a stronger connection with your customer, and builds trust.” – Nathan Rothstein
4. Raw Generation
“When you are starting out in business, resources are often very limited. This is precisely why it is that much more imperative that you create a goal with a deadline and focus every waking moment on achieving that goal.“– Jessica Geie
5. Pura Vida Bracelets
“Big social sharing buttons on product pages, clean template design, and post purchase sharing are a must.” – Griffin Thrall
6. Catan Boards
“When engaging with customers, do things early on that don’t scale. Write little personal notes on packages. Say hi to them on Twitter. Invite local customers to come check out your shop.” – Bill Trammel
7. Bee’s Wrap
“Once the website was set up, features on different blogs were my best marketing tool. We have done many giveaways and interviews on all kinds of blogs.” – Sarah Kaeck
8. Southern Swim
“Find what you love and let it kill you. We had no idea what we were getting into when we first started. Building a brand and launching a store is easy; it’s what you do with it afterwards that’s hard.” – Joey Nelson
9. Hickies
“As a general rule, we only work with nice people. We try to treat our customers the way we want to be treated and make every interaction a positive one.” – Mariquel Waingarten
10. Slyde Handboards
“It’s not an essential key to a successful business but it does help that you are immersed in the lifestyle of it especially something like the surf industry.” – Steve Watts
11. Lookmatic
“Find a way to be genuine. There is so much noise out there and consumers are savvier than ever – you have to really believe in your product and have an honest commitment to your customers to find a message that resonates.” – Kishore Hiranand
12. Graceship
“It’s important to us to be able to interact on a personal level with our guests, and social media in its many forms is a beautiful tool for doing so.” – Emily Gimmel
13. Laura Davidson Direct
“It’s important not to let the bad days get you down, and realize that there’s an abundant supply of customers and opportunity around the next bend.” – Laura Davidson Direct
14. Mindzai
“If you try to make everything as perfect as you can it’s really going to show in your end product.” –Chris Tsang
15. NFNT
“Do NOT let yourself be talked out of success.” – Ryan Chaffin
16. Rage On
“Make sure you have something awesome that your friends want. If your friends don’t want it, then somebody else better want it, otherwise, it’s not worth doing.” – Mike Krilivsky
17. IX Style
“My apartment doubles as our office. Keep your costs as low as possible.” – Francesca Kennedy
18. Tortuga Backpacks
“To build up interest in the new version, we documented the entire process. Along we way, we shared sketches and pictures of early prototypes and gave our followers a glimpse behind the scenes of our product photo shoots.” – Fred Perrotta
19. Fleurings
“Always make sure you have plenty of inventory in stock when you have big media coming your way. You don’t want to be back ordered if possible.” – Samantha Lockwood
20. Gown and Oars
“Social engagement has been amazing and the flow of traffic to our site is still largely thanks to Instagram and Twitter.” – Karim Faisali
21. Greats Sneakers
“There are always challenges but if you have a clear idea of what the store should look like it will help define the flow of the site and all the other logistical stuff that is critical for a successful online store.” –Ryan Babenzien
22. Jenn Louise
“Don’t underestimate the importance of marketing, especially paid advertising. With our site being online only, this has been essential for us. It kick starts everything.” – Jenn Louise
23. Modern Workspace
“Never forget that internet sales are directly related to traffic.” – Wes O’Donnell
24. Little Joe Woman
“We have found that an online store is not so different from our physical boutiques and that there is now a blending of service.” – Gail Elliott
25. Kigurumi
“We provide memorable customer service; people love that they can text us with easy questions and get a quick response.” – Maria Pham
26. Au Lit Fine Linens
“When organizing our product line for our online store, we quickly realized that we needed to re-organize some aspects of our brick and mortar store.” – Peggy Byron
27. 3Fish Studios
“Work hard — I think that’s always the difference between a lot of opportunities.” – Eric Rewitzer
28. Biko
“I ended up calling a local PR company, because I wanted to go in with a bang. We actually got some great press and a lot of people visited the site, and the sales came in right away.” – Corrine Anestopoulos
29. The Fudge House
“By using high-class photography, we are able to evoke the color and texture of our fudge so that we can invite online shoppers into our kitchen, the heart of our business.” – Giancarlo Di Sotto
30. Prinnnt
“For early success we used an online app called LaunchRock to build a mailing list. It creates a beautiful landing page that you can throw together in seconds to start collecting information from potential customers.” – Tucker Schreiber
31. Audicus
“Do as much research as possible, but prepare to be unprepared.” – Allison Becker
32. Foundling
“Spend the time and money required to find the right partners and suppliers.” – Philippe Soria
33. Active Hound Toys
“Don’t reinvent the wheel – just find something someone else is doing and do it better.” – Zak Taylor
34. Three Little Birds
“Instagram and Facebook has been huge for us. We can engage with our customers and let them be apart of our ‘world’ through Instagram.” – Jess Brumpton
35. ACK Surf
“We are a lifestyle brand, so we wanted our website to mimic this lifestyle and go past simply purchasing clothes. We update the site frequently with new photographs that continually drive traffic to the site.” – Sam Toole
36. KERO Products
“Once you are confident in your operation, begin experimenting with apps.” – Robert Meza
37. Triggertrap
“Think like a brick-and-mortar shop: Upselling is important, and if it’s possible to recover abandoned carts do so.” – Matt Kane
38. Vertty
“People hate to wait for their purchases and they want to know where their items are, all the time. Pay a little more for a good shipping partner, because it will pay off in the future.” – Diogo Cruz
39. Beardbrand
“Stick to doing the work that makes you the happiest, and outsource the stuff you don’t enjoy doing.” –Eric Bandholz
40. Black Milk Clothing
“I would say Black Milk wouldn’t be around if it wasn’t for Facebook.” – Cameron Parker
41. You Need It
“We recommend to work hard and be nice to people you work with.” – Anya Leushina
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