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The purpose of What's In Store is for us to share our experiences, good and bad, as we dive into the world of e-commerce. But I have to admit, sometimes I feel a little weird about reporting all my professional failures to more than 290,000 people each week.
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I already have a tendency to be hard on myself, and many of these mistakes seem so obvious in hindsight. Ugh. But then I get replies from y'all saying things like:
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Our third partner, Baron Fig, does such a good job of humanizing their brand and being transparent about these types of moments. They have a blog where they share lessons they've learned, they share behind the scenes stories in interviews, and they even say on their website that their products are in a state of constant evolution—that they'll be iterated on according to community feedback.
Knowing their story makes you want to support them, and it's one of the reasons I reached out to them about partnering with Freddie and Co. I even had the opportunity to chat with the guys at Baron Fig and learn more about their experiences.
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Here's the first thing I asked Joey, Adam and Jay:
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Turns out, they get that a lot.
"There are the people who ask us how to do something, and then there are the people that go ahead and do it," Joey told me.
The trio pointed out that the people who excel at e-commerce are those who are restless and excited by learning. You have to find solutions to new problems every day and there's only so much advice you can collect before you have to just get to work and do the thing.
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They tried to outsource photography and programming until they finally accepted that no one was meeting their standards. So they signed up for classes and taught themselves until they acquired the skills to build their site the way they had imagined it.
"No one is going to solve your hardest problem," Adam said, reflecting back on that moment. And it's true! No one cares about your business as much as you do.
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But another thing to remember through all of this? Mistakes happen!
Joey told me a story about a time he realized a MailChimp automation workflow they set up to thank customers for ordering had been turned off. When he realized this, he went to turn it back on again. Turns out, the automation had queued up a few thousand emails during the time it had been off and it, gulp, emailed them all immediately.
He spent the day replying to panicked customers who thought their credit cards were compromised because they hadn't made an order at Baron Fig that day. Yikes.
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No matter how much you prepare or triple check, mistakes are inevitable. For all of us. And once we accept—and embrace!—that reality, it's much easier to confidently move forward.
Speaking of which...
Next week, I'll tell you all about my latest blunder. I'm calling it The Great Blueprint Shipping Crisis of September 2016.
Can't wait. ;)
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