BIO: Anatoliy Labinskiy is an entrepreneur, eCommerce expert, and a holder of 4-time Two Comma Club awards. He is the founder of GSM Growth, an agency that helps e-commerce entrepreneurs achieve a new level of growth in their businesses.

STORY: When Anatoliy and his partner decided to scale their e-commerce shoe business, they paid a supplier in China $250,000 upfront and let him handle everything. The supplier sent customers low-quality shoes and eventually stopped shipping products despite having large orders. The partners had to refund customers and lost all the money they’d paid the supplier.

LEARNING: Double-check with your supplier how the product looks and works before scaling your sales. Think about how you’ll control your inventory once you scale your sales. Start slow.

 

“When you start scaling your business, even when you start just seeing a couple of sales here and there, ask your supplier to send you pictures and videos of the product in the warehouse.”Anatoliy Labinskiy

 

Guest profile

Anatoliy Labinskiy is an entrepreneur, eCommerce expert, and a holder of 4-time Two Comma Club awards. He is the founder of GSM Growth, an agency that helps e-commerce entrepreneurs achieve a new level of growth in their businesses. He is also a co-founder of EcomScout.io, an AI-powered service that tracks all loss events in advertising campaigns, providing real-time data and insights for informed decision-making and optimized ad spending.

In addition to his entrepreneurial pursuits, Anatoliy hosts the highly acclaimed Ecom Business Stream Podcast. The podcast showcases real-life stories from successful entrepreneurs, executives, investors, and thought leaders, offering a glimpse into their journeys to success in the business world.

Recognized for his outstanding achievements, Anatoliy Labinskiy is a member of the Forbes Business Council. He also proudly holds a place among the Top 100 USA Entrepreneurs with Ukrainian Origins, underscoring his influence and impact in the dynamic realm of e-commerce.

As an international speaker, Anatoliy shares his knowledge and expertise with audiences worldwide, further establishing himself as a leading figure in the e-commerce landscape.

Worst investment ever

In 2019, Anatoliy and his partner decided to scale their e-commerce business. At the time, they were selling leather shoes. They pumped in $250,000 to pay the supplier for inventory and to ship to customers instantly. They had worked with this supplier for a couple of months, so they let him handle everything. The partners had never seen the shoes they were selling in real life. They had only seen the pictures provided by the supplier.

Then, customers started sending emails complaining about the quality of the shoes. They thought it was just the usual case of a few unhappy customers and didn’t take it seriously until one customer insisted on sending back the shoes she had received so that the partners could see what they were selling. The shoes were sent to Anatoliy’s partner, who was in Minnesota. When the shoes arrived and the partner opened the box, it was unbelievable. The shoes had the smell of some toxic material. The shoes were plastic and wrapped in a garbage bag. The partners couldn’t believe what they were seeing. They couldn’t believe they had paid $250,000 for such crap.

They contacted the supplier, who assured them he would ship the correct product. Two weeks after this conversation, the partners started receiving customer emails complaining that they hadn’t received their orders. On checking the tracking numbers, they realized that they were fake.

So many people asked for chargebacks, causing PayPal and Stripe to hold all payments the customers had made. Anatoliy and his partner had to dip into their pockets to refund the customers. They never got the money that was put on hold.

Lessons learned

• Double-check how the product looks and works with your supplier before scaling your sales.
• Think about how you’ll control your inventory once you scale your sales.
• You need cash flow and remain liquid for your business to stay afloat.

Andrew’s takeaways

• Start slow.

Anatoliy’s recommendation

Anatoliy recommends checking out his website for tips and tricks on running your e-commerce store and resources for writing ad copy that converts.

No.1 goal for the next 12 months

Anatoliy’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to get better quality customers for his agency and make it bigger in terms of results.

Parting words

 

“Look at your failures as lessons, and they won’t be failures anymore.”Anatoliy Labinskiy

 

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