We were lucky to catch up with Daniel Genders recently and have shared our conversation below.

Daniel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we talk about all of your success, let’s start with a story of failure. Can you open up about a time when you’ve failed?

I remember about four years ago, I watched a Youtube video about dropshipping. It had me intrigued and inspired as it’s a way of making an income without actually owning a product. I could simply open an online e-commerce store, find a wholesaler in China, upload their products to the site and whenever a sale came through I’d message the wholesaler and they’d ship it.

I created the site and uploaded a few products to the site. The one big major factor and why it failed is supply and demand. These YouTube videos racked in hundreds and thousands of views so everyone was doing it. Everyone was selling the same things from these wholesalers. It became a saturated market. Another reason why it failed is because of my conscience. I didn’t like the fact that the products were all mass produced in sweatshops in China. I eventually shifted away from dropshipping and its bad practices into something I could be proud of.

Daniel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Daniel and created an online e-commerce marketplace where vendors can sell collectables and handmade products.

The website is called Daucers, it’s a little bit like eBay or Etsy, but specifically designed for selling collectables only and is available to the US and UK. On the site Vendors can specify if a product is handmade or where it’s made. This is what the site is about. I think nowadays people are looking for handmade products or something that is made in their local area by creative artists.

What sets Daucers apart from other marketplaces like Amazon is we advertise vendors online shops on Instagram or Google. We do it for them and out no cost for the vendor. We also offer money for vendor referrals and money for reviewing the site.

Daucers is also as cheap as possible for sellers who earn 90% of the commission.

I think what I’m most proud of is the evolution of the business. Business is a long process and nothing is learnt in a day. It started out as a dropshipping business, then went onto selling cute items, then antiques and now a marketplace. Each of these previous business failures was a learning curve and I passed those skills onto the next idea. I’m in love with what I’ve created and it doesn’t feel like a job. It started as a hobby and now it’s a reality.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Luckily online businesses are much more cheaper to run than owning/renting a physical building. I managed to save a little each month from working at a restaurant and put that into the cheapest hosting plan which is only $2.75 a month! This gave me time to build the site up and get my brain of ideas flowing. As time went on I needed a faster website so upgraded slightly to a $3.50 plan. This is cheaper than a Netflix subscription!

Software does cost money however but you can do this extremely cheaply for around $100 – $1000
I believe altogether I spent around $10k on software, but Daucers requires big memory to provide a great service.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I have my own little shop on the Daucers marketplace itself selling antiques. This is what I’m personally passionate about.

Pros: I can unload products to my own marketplace which is in itself a bit like eBay or Amazon. This means 100% of the profits go to myself which in turn I invest into ads, advertising for new vendors products on the site.

Cons: Ebay and Amazon have much higher traffic to their sites and already have a loyal customer base. It can be a challenge to persuade new vendors to the site that are already on these platforms.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://daucers.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daucers/