In today’s extremely competitive eCommerce and marketing world, it is not easy for a business to stand out. Many startups facing high odds of even making it and end up failing or being absorbed by more prominent companies along the way.

However, some fantastic success stories have also come to light that is worth learning from and emulating to discover how to follow in their footsteps.

One thing to take away from these companies is that many of them started from small beginnings but had the drive to overcome the odds. They relied on unique products, innovative techniques of marketing, and finding the right mix of people to support themselves with to keep moving forward, driving eCommerce the smart way.

If you wish to build a fruitful eCommerce brand, notably your very own platform for sales, you need to find the right logistics partner to support it.

1) Innovating in an already crowded logistics space 

One particular business focusing on the logistics part of the market, specifically drop-shipping, is uDroppy. The firm focuses on sourcing, fulfilment and shipping and can alleviate the logistics burden for companies that want to focus on their primary tasks of marketing, growth of their platforms or product development.

Nicolo Manica and Luca Borreani founded Udroppy. Both are Italian-born businessmen and well travelled. What makes their story intriguing is that they paid for their master’s degrees with the money they generated from their businesses.

They continue to be a shining example for many young entrepreneurs and marketing pros worldwide. Sometimes all it takes is a great idea or simple concept, and with the best people behind it, the plan can turn into something awesome. “The concept was straightforward at the beginning: creating a B2B platform that connects E-Commerce stores, both using drop shipping and warehouse business models, to suppliers,” according to their profiles on Ideamensch.

2) Teaching strategic marketing with online coursework

Another success story worth researching to inspire you is the example of Eric Dyck from iStack Training.

iStack is a community of educators with courses, advice, podcasts and events set up to help aspiring marketers and eCommerce aspirants gain useful knowledge on the coalface.

Eric has a fascinating history as he initially started as an independent affiliate and promoted toolbar downloads using Adwords. He specialises in performance marketing and focuses mainly on helping entrepreneurs and marketers leverage their unique skillsets associated with digital marketing campaigns.

3) Leveraging today’s demand for privacy to start a successful business

Online privacy is a seriously hot topic today due to the many controversies that emerged over the last few years from things like Wikileaks revelations to Facebook data snooping and many others. Individuals wish to be in control of their privacy and their data online.

One savvy entrepreneur who has capitalised on this need into something worth finding inspiration from is Alexandru Iulian Florea who started online.io.

Online.io is a p2p virtual privacy system that leverages residential p2p networking with blockchain technology. If you check out Online.io, it is quite fascinating with moving images or gifs showing intricate graphics. However, the focus is clearly on numerous methods of securing privacy and private communications.

What makes this businessperson and advocate for privacy unique is his success story. He started from modest upbringings with a stark choice in hand: go to college (he dropped out at this point), leave his mums house, get a job in a pub, or figure out some innovative ways to make money online immediately. He chose the latter, and it was affiliate marketing that brought him some fame and fortune and laid the way for his newest venture.

4) Leveraging Facebook As The Definitive Marketing Platform

Using social media for advertising is nothing new, and many marketing professionals have made careers out of it. The social media platform indeed morphed over the years to become a great way to reach out for new customers and audiences as well as even sell directly to potential consumers. Facebook at its core also offers eCommerce and many ways to make money.

One marketer and entrepreneur whom we can draw inspiration from in her success of utilising the Facebook platform is the founder of IMQueen Consulting, Christina Szekeres.

She doesn’t hold back on her Facebook success with the moniker “FBQueen” and offers various consulting services and other workshops to help budding entrepreneurs prosper. She was born in Hungary and currently lives in the US.

Some of her advice to take note of is to attend networking events and meetups as opposed to trying to figure everything out yourself; start with strategic calls with your group every week.

5) Hiring the underemployed to allow a brand to shine

Imagine finding out that a company is employing 30 part-time mums to run a jewellery company. That is precisely what Founder of ShineOne Jewelry, Eric Toczko, did.

ShineOn, being built on the Shopify platform uses a mobile app to function as an affiliate eCommerce system. ShineOne also decided to launch its jewellery products regularly.

Toczko’s history as an entrepreneur truly speaks for itself when the phrase, “coming from humble beginnings” is accompanied. He started in a basement in Brooklyn while sleeping on a mattress on the floor at night. The way he entered into jewellery production and eCommerce was that he saw a gap in the market to be able to sell jewellery with no upfront costs and negligible risk.

Toczko also credits his success to his every-day routine of cold showers, exercising, tea and meditation.

All of these entrepreneurs provide something unique to take away from and learn from for you to drive a new venture forward successfully. Startups and new enterprises these days have to be able to excel on a stage with many other experienced players that may already have had a head start, more funding and already have the right marketing in place to push growth.

However, do not be discouraged as these successful entrepreneurs and marketing professionals show that sometimes all it takes a good idea or strong will to make it in the online world and you can create a successful business.