Marinette R. Barbero

AKO SESSION GUEST SPEAKER OF THE WEEK Inez White SHOPIFY GURU FOUNDER & CEO INDIGENUITY, LTD. 7 FEBRUARY 2020 | 6.30-7.30 PM https://zoom.us/j/- KA HAO I TE AO PROGRAMME | TE WHARE HUKAHUKA KA HAO I TE AO PROGRAMME | TE WHARE HUKAHUKA Q&A withInez Q: What is your background? A: Te Arawa, Registered Valuer. Q: Why did you decide to develop a digital dimension to your business? A: Mainly because there is only one of me as a Māori, female, valuer. My skillsets can’t be easily replicated so I had to find a way to service more people with each one of my hours. Q: What did you learn as a result? A: I’ve learned that I was right, that Maori people (my client base) are adaptable and do use social media. One of my videos was viewed 150,000 times. Q: What businesses/income streams support you? A: I have consultation fees (video, phone call and in person meetings) , an online membership subscription (Patreon monthly income) , Airbnb income for my apartment, commercial rent for my office shop, work for Shopify Ecommerce platform. KA HAO I TE AO PROGRAMME | TE WHARE HUKAHUKA KA HAO I TE AO PROGRAMME | TE WHARE HUKAHUKA Q: Tell us about your role with Shopify. A: I am a guru. I get paid to master my way around the Shopify system, by using it for my own businesses (I have three shops.) Then I coach other merchants who need help! Q: How should people start in Shopify? A: You should start with the free trial store for 14 days. The most significant obstacle when starting up is the use of images for your online store/website. Good quality images, banners, thumbnails with consistent styling are a must - they don’t have to be professional ones, but need to be clear. You also need to know how to adjust the size and ratio of the images. You should also understand how to connect your store to Facebook, Instagram and use ad campaigns. Q: What are the first key steps when starting a new Shopify business? A: Have a bank account ready to receive your credit card payments and moreover have a PayPal account setup. Understanding how to collect your money is the most vital first step. KA HAO I TE AO PROGRAMME | TE WHARE HUKAHUKA KA HAO I TE AO PROGRAMME | TE WHARE HUKAHUKA Q: What are your tips on driving traffic to your ecommerce store? A: You could rely on Facebook and Instagram advertising alone. This costs money. For example one time I spent $30 of advertising and got $300 or so of income for one of my stores. I have friends who spend $1,000 on advertising to get $3,000 of sales. This approach can be a trap if you rely on it. But if you are about a service or a niche market, you are better to develop a reputation for yourself through using Instagram Stories, FB stories, Pinterest (if you are an artist), and webinars. When people trust you and your korero, after a while they start to find you on their own. Q: What are the key learnings you have acquired? A: E-commerce is just like setting up a physical shop - it actually takes time (couple weeks) to setup the online store and it takes effort. Imagine renting out a new physical shop, then you have to paint it, put down new carpet, put some advertising on the window, connect the electricity and get an EFTPOS machine. Yeah, setting up an E-commerce store is just the same. Main difference is that it costs you $29 per month compared to $1,500 of rent. Follow Inez at: www.indigify.co @indigify KA HAO I TE AO PROGRAMME | TE WHARE HUKAHUKA KA HAO I TE AO PROGRAMME | TE WHARE HUKAHUKA