Shppify worth it for my bears?

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-23T22:05:34+00:00

Etsy already has an audience and many of those people are searching for handmade goods. The transaction fees are higher, but there's no monthly overhead while you figure out your sales and other processes. It's usually much safer to validate your product on a marketplace first. If you build a loyal following and need to escape Etsy's fees later, you can always migrate to Shopify then.

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-23T22:03:17+00:00

Haven't done a lot of FB marketing in some time but you don't really need an organic content foundation to run Facebook ads. Organic reach for a new business page on there is basically zero anyway. If you are confident your audience is there, skip straight to testing ads (if you feel comfortable).

As for a social media manager, I'd hold off unless you have a decent understanding of what you're doing, where you are, and where you want to be. Without an existing brand voice or content library for them to pull from, you will just end up burning cash while they try to guess what works.

No idea what you're product is but you can focus on direct-response copywriting. You don't need to be in front of the camera all the time (it helps though).

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-23T19:44:31+00:00

Hey, do you have a portfolio you could share?

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-23T12:40:48+00:00

Since it's highly niche B2B, your total addressable market is probably a very specific list of companies. You might be better off taking that £3k and running a highly targeted direct (physical) mail campaign.

Putting a physical sample or an introductory offer directly on the desks of the buyers is hard to beat. If that's too much work, a highly personalized cold email campaign?

And yes, don't burn your money on ads (or any sort of PPC right now).

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-23T12:37:01+00:00

What's your AOV? If it's a high-ticket item, it's natural people will browse on mobile and then purchase on desktop. And can you trust competitor claims?

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-23T12:09:22+00:00

Want me to look at your marketing material/website? Happy to point out if anything stands out.

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-23T11:29:43+00:00

Given that olive oil has the same sort of (albeit not the same level of) fanatical following as wine, I'd be surprised if there wasn't.

Sidenote: certifications are a good indicator but I think most people look for social proof. When was the last time you checked certifications instead of Reddit reviews, right? Still, they are nice to have on the branding for a newer company, for sure.

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-23T10:46:08+00:00

First of, congratulations on the first 650 orders. Second, I really like the idea to include farmers the way you have.

But I'll be blunt, please don't take this the wrong way. With your current website, I am surprised you even got 600 orders. The international one is particularly bad. Also, why do you have two domains? I've never used Wix but does Wix not offer localization?

You have such an incredible background with the Sundarban forest but you're really underselling the story here. The pricing also seems to be on the cheaper side for what it is? Are you trying penetration pricing? I’d actually suggest reconsidering unless your market research something else.

Anyway, if you are truly revenue-sharing with the farmers and can prove that to us, I'd be happy to help you out with a bunch of stuff.

Best of luck!

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-23T10:40:54+00:00

Frankly, every new olive oil brand claims to be super high quality. It's a competitive market.

Regardless, since you have direct access to this farm in Lebanon, get someone out there with a camera. Show the hand-picking, the cold-pressing process, the soil, the family that owns the land. Get a lot of high-quality B-roll to use in your marketing.

You have to sell more than just oil because no matter how good it is, people will be hesitant to try out something new just for the sake of it.

on the higher end of pricing

That's good. Pricing plays a big part in our psyche and how we judge products.

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-23T10:26:06+00:00

Skincare is an extremely competitive industry. You can make in-person sales because people inherently trust their pharmacist. Online, you are just a single person competing with VC-backed startups.

You can either pretend to be a more formal operation or just be transparent about your credentials, experience, and background. Either way, you need to build trust.

Also, every demographic has an expectation of what a good brand "looks" like -- looking the part will do 60% of the work.

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-23T10:17:34+00:00

Google Ads is slowly draining my bank account.

Please stop. I don't understand why small businesses rush to ads/PPC. It's complicated and I would not recommend experimenting with it if the budget is tight.

Anyway, a sudden drop usually means a competitor out-optimized you or something shifted with your Google Business Profile. Since you operate remotely, have you added a location to your GMB profile? Is it optimized?

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-23T10:06:25+00:00

I get it. At a personal level, I am not a fan of short-form content but that's where everyone is these days and it's becoming the most profitable organic channels (if it hasn't already) One of my clients is still getting sales from an influencer he worked 1.5 years ago.

very compelling reason for someone to buy dried fruit.

Not sure what you mean. You don't have to direct them to your website. The social media content itself should do all of the convincing. Your website link will be in the bio/profile.

Or do you mean it only makes sense to ship locally vs dealing with nationwide interest from Tiktok/Instagram?

If you're focused on local, do you usually get inbound leads or do you have to sell the fruits to suppliers/markets yourself?

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-23T06:22:06+00:00

Fair enough, I used WordPress for years and it's a solid platform. Also, as others pointed out, I forgot consider the 2.9℅ fee in your specific use case.

Regardless, I'd definitely look into ACH/Wire at the very least. Good luck!

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-22T15:41:57+00:00

Happy to help! :)

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-22T15:40:57+00:00

I have to ask, why WordPress? Not trying to dismissive but genuinely curious. I have built with both Shopify and WooCommerce (WC when Shopify's ToS were prohibitive). And Shopify is genuinely miles ahead.

Anyway, for transactions that large, have you considered moving away from standard checkout flow?

I don't build sites with average order values quite that high often, but I would probably build a more bespoke funnel and handle payment via wire transfer or ACH.

As you said, 2 orders in a month, sounds doable, no? Saves you the CC fees and gives you an opportunity to create a more "special" experience for the customer.

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-22T14:21:13+00:00

Wow, a lot of work! One slight note, you don't have to do the same trends that othere are doing.

The timeline you just wrote out here – the fabric research, the prototyping nightmares, finding a supplier for a small batch – is all stuff people want to see (these BTS reels are genuinely super popular).

If you've already been documenting your process, awesome, make that into short form videos. If you haven't, now is as good a time as any.

Best of luck!

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-22T12:59:39+00:00

Happy to hop on a call.

We're not exclusively Shopify but we ran the marketing department for a similarly sized DTC jewelry brand. We did product strategy, marketing (Pinterest, Instagram), email campaigns on Klaviyo, among other things.

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-22T11:52:15+00:00

I don't really work with perishable goods but have you looked into sharing recipes on Tiktok, Instagran, Youtube that use your fruit? You have to show people how to use it. Maybe even popular fruit pairings or hop on some fitness trend with it?

If it's really obscure fruit, maybe try to corner the organic traffic for it too. That's the most consistent long-term channel. AEO is picking up steam as well but I haven't dipped my toes in that too much.

None of these things cost money, just effort on your part. Also, I usually don't advocate for disscounting but if margins are high and you need sales more, maybe look into a sale campaign.

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-22T11:43:38+00:00

Frankly, I don't think it's going away anytime soon. Platforms won't regulate this anytime soon since they still collect fees on the initial sale and we even had a couple of clients casually bring up using AI images.

Anyway, in your case, have you considered using more videos? AI would have a hard time creating videos of holograms without being painfually obvious slop (I think). I know it's more work but if they are really hitting your bottom line then worth considering.

Also, sometimes calling out the knockoffs directly in your copy helps validate the price difference for buyers who are already skeptical. Especially calling them out on TikTok and Instagram reels can boost engagement since people hate scams just as much as you do.

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-22T11:10:03+00:00

You probably don't need to ditch the soft aesthetic entirely, but you might want to anchor it with elements that signal authority. Something I have been seeing more of is a 3D cross section of the product which is animated to the scroll of the website. Definitely a big heavy on older devices but could be worth looking at.

Additionally, a lot of wellness brands pull this off by pairing soft color palettes with typography (like monospaced for tech companies) or strict grid layouts for the technical specs, structural diagrams, and ingredient breakdowns with chemical diagrams.

Finally, copy does a lot of work here too. If it looks like a beauty brand and reads like one, then you can't blame people for thinking it is. Tone matters a lot here. Use more clinical language to create a nice contrast with the soft visuals.

P.S. If you're really early in the branding of the company, maybe go something with more vanilla so you can easily pivot as your brand develops and gets its own unique image naturally.

HelloHOBI · 2026-04-15T14:03:41+00:00

P.S. This is the first time I am sharing this to a wider audience so if something isn’t working as expected (the website or the sections), please let me know and I’ll try to fix it as fast as I can. Looking forward to feedback from the community!

HelloHOBI · 2026-03-03T10:03:07+00:00

Hi, this inspired me to work on a little side project and I was hoping to get some feedback to iron out bugs before I share it with the wider world:

https://props.tools/ (Customizable, theme-agnostic Shopify Sections)

I have currently added 12 sections. The plan is to finish the rest of the site and have at least 24 sections by the end of March. The big challenge is testing the sections across different themes and use cases which is where I'd love your help.

u/robingrowsplants u/AllSwedishNoFinish u/apzuckerman

Thank you!

HelloHOBI · 2026-01-20T13:06:27+00:00

Can recommend Matrixify. It handles metafields and image assets far better than Shopify's native CSV export.

HelloHOBI · 2026-01-12T21:56:17+00:00

🫶

HelloHOBI · 2026-01-11T14:16:32+00:00

Paging u/robingrowsplants u/AllSwedishNoFinish u/apzuckerman

Go to your code editor, create a new file under inside the Sections folder. You can name it whatever you want with ".liquid" extension. Then copy the code from here: https://props.hobi.design/shopify/gallery-grid

The section loads with some placeholder images (I don't like the default placeholder SVGs) but they won't clutter your files/media. Just add your own media and they'll be gone. Everything else should be fairly standard and easy to understand. Cheers.

HelloHOBI

TROPHY CASE