If you’re like many ecommerce founders today, you’re spending hours per day in a room on your computer trying to find customers and improve your operations. That gets lonely.
Entrepreneurial loneliness is well-documented. If you haven’t taken on funding (and a growing number of founders are shirking funding rounds), then your circle likely lacks mentors. And there aren’t too many easy-to-access networking events for ecommerce yet.
To get that fuzzy feeling of camaraderie today, you may want to look online. While many today bemoan the prevalence of social media, it can be an amazing tool for contacting other founders on the same journey.
In the early days of our business at OTW Shipping, we gained customers, learned our trade, and made deals primarily through Reddit. We still actively contribute to these groups as helping founders like you is our primary business.
But if you’re trying to find a group today, where should you look? We’ve been asking ourselves a similar question recently and wanted to create a quick guide to help you get started.
Our Criteria For Great Ecommerce Groups
We realize not all groups on social media are created equal. Many are marketing schemes for get-rich-quick classes. Others have devolved into a sea of advertisements. We quickly found this wasn’t a task we could simply use ChatGPT for. We needed to get in there and sign up for groups to see what they’re all about.
We based our final list on the final criteria:
People actually talk in the group
The group has rules that seem to be enforced
The group is private and/or has
The group has active moderators
The group remains relatively on topic (not a bunch of ads)
Group doesn’t ask for personal email and/or phone number
The group doesn’t require a subscription to access its most basic level
This is a short list because few groups made the cut. Keep reading to see who made it.
Top Facebook Groups For Ecommerce Founders
Facebook is the application that almost everyone uses (though many pretend they don’t). And while the feed has begun to die, it has quietly become well-known for its groups features.
Unfortunately, after a month of research we only found one group that we felt we could confidently refer new entrepreneurs to. Most others either never accepted our join requests, were empty, or were filled with spam links.
Shopify For Beginners
While this group is specifically geared towards beginners, it is one of the most active and well-run communities we found on Facebook. Most users ask generic, beginner questions like “What is the best CRM app for Shopify?”
We were impressed to see a constructive comment section on most posts with thoughtful insights. This seems like a great place for both beginners and for experienced founders wanting to give back to the community.
Rules
No Spam, No Self Promotions
No asking members to PM you to help them, you must help the group as a whole.
Do Not Send Unsolicited (Not asked For) Messages
No EARNINGS / SALES Screenshots whatsoever!
27 posts per day
61,242 members
7 years old
6 moderators
Top Discord Groups For Ecommerce Founders
Discord is a growing social app used primarily by the younger generations. It boasts a Slack-like channels system and voice chat. The primary benefit of Discord is it creates more intimate communities by promoting smaller chat groups and real-time contact.
We managed to find two decent groups that we’ve listed below.
Amazon FBA
This is a growing group recently created by the r/fulfilledbyamazon community. It uses many of the same moderators and has added an interesting tier-filter to its conversations.
We’d venture to say this is one of the better-maintained Discord ecommerce groups.
Current members ~2,000
Moderators: 2 and a bot
It has a mixture of public and private chats. Private channels are where the more experienced group members can go to discuss large-business problems.
To access their level one private channel, you need proof of $100K annual sales on Amazon. You can also achieve this status by being helpful in the main channel for the requisite amount of time or from promoting the Discord.
To access level two you need proof of $500K annual Amazon sales.
Rules
No promoting paid or trial website(s), service(s), or product(s) you own or are affiliated with without mod approval. Free, open source products are allowed and encouraged.
Try to avoid low effort/low quality questions.. If the answer to the question can be found by searching discord or checking pinned messages, it counts as low effort/low quality.
Do not disclose buyer(s) or seller(s) identities. Listing names, addresses, phone numbers or anything that would count as doxing is not allowed.
Do not ping or send unsolicited DMs to people for help or assistance. Pinging random people or sending unsolicited DMs will be considered spam. We did not make a public server just so people could hide away in private messages.
Do not ask people to DM you to help you with your issues or provide advice. Same as rule #4
Adhere to Discord TOS
Post frequency: Roughly 7-20 per day (in main channels).
Ecom Warriors
This group is a lead magnet for a course but we included it as there is an “General” chat that stays reasonably on topic. However, most chats here are extremely basic. This would be another group that is solely for helping other new people and networking. It would not be our suggestion for advanced founders.
16,000+ members
4 moderators
Roughly 20 messages/day
Notable Rules
No DMs or PMs: Do not send unsolicited direct messages or private messages to other users without their consent. Respect others privacy and engage in conversations within the appropriate channels or public forums.
No Scamming: Users are strictly prohibited from engaging in any form of scamming, phishing, or fraudulent activities. This includes attempting to deceive or defraud others for personal gain or sharing malicious links or content.
No Advertisements: Avoid promoting or advertising external products, services, or websites without prior permission from the server administrators. This includes spamming or repeatedly sharing links or content solely for promotional purposes.
Top Reddit Groups For Ecommerce Founders
Reddit right now is THE place to go for an ecommerce founder looking for a group. Primarily because it hosts the supergroup r/ecommerce.
Reddit moderators are also some of the most diligent in the business. Love it or hate it, they’ve created a remarkable space for insightful discussion.
r/ecommerce
r/ecommerce is probably one of the best managed, robust, ecommerce forums out there today. We’re active contributors to this group at OTW Shipping and encounter quite a few of our customers here.
If you’re getting started on your ecommerce journey, this is the place for you to do it. However, be warned, blatant promotions or violation of their myriad of rules will result in a permanent ban. Their moderators are extremely active (and that’s a good thing).
460K members (top 1% of Reddit)
6 moderators (The oldest has been on for 16 years)
Countless posts per day
Rules (there’s a lot)
The sub requires a Reddit account age of 10 days and a minimum Reddit comment karma score of 10
A - PROHIBITED CONTENT
(1) If you solicit or attempt promotion in this sub in any way - via post, request for DM, referral, or DM to others - or in any way try to initiate personal contact or solicit a user, your comment / post will be removed and you will be banned. No questions asked, no second chances. The sub is here to help users, not for you to promote yourself or your service(s). Do not link to your YouTube, Twitter, FB, or other pages. Keep all conversation pertaining to the post here so that everyone may benefit from contributions.
(2) Do not post a link to a service / blog / video / or website (see section "B"). Do not promote your site, app, or service here, even if free. App reviews are not allowed in this group.
(3) Do not make a "We turned $XXX into $XXX in 4 Weeks - Here's How" or any type of "Top 5 Ways You Can..." lists, success story "How I Did", or other obvious longform blogspam type posts.
(4) Do not ask what products you should sell.
(5) Do not offer your site, course, theme, or anything related for sale, partnership, or trade
(6) Do not post an unsolicited AMA (ask me anything). Such posts are rarely approved with the exception of highly visible industry veterans.
B - LINKING TO SITES
Posting a link to your ecommerce site for review or troubleshooting purposes is allowed and encouraged. For any other links, see section A-2 (above).
C - DROPSHIP-SPECIFIC POSTS
Posts related to dropship-only sites are allowed, but typically generate very little feedback from our users.
r/fulfillmentbyamazon
This one is a bit more specific and directly related to the Amazon FBA Discord group mentioned above. It’s also quite active, however, they’ve been recently pushing their user base and conversations heavily towards the Discord.
104K members
9 moderators (Oldest for 10 years)
~ 30 posts per day
Rules – Much less strict than r/ecommerce
Can post promotional content with mod approval
Don’t disclose buyer/seller identities
If you post to brag, it should be good content and it should only be a small percentage of your posts
Where are the LinkedIn and Twitter Groups For Ecommerce Founders?
While LinkedIn has a groups function, we frequently find LinkedIn groups to be dead spaces filled with promotional posts. However, we’ll update this article if we find anything interesting in the future.
Unlike other social media, LinkedIn and Twitter are designed to construct who you see in your feed based on who you interact with. In their system, most useful networking and discussions materialize in the comments sections of influential accounts.
Our advice for networking on LinkedIn and Twitter is to follow a few large accounts in the space that post a lot and then get in on conversations in their comment sections.
You should also try to post every day on your personal account and use your comments on other accounts to draw people to your personal account.
Finally, make sure you curate your feed by letting LinkedIn and Twitter know which posts you don’t want to see.
👉 This is a pretty robust article we found on optimizing LinkedIn.
👉 This is a basic but well-made article on how to build relationships on Twitter.
Where Else to Look For Ecommerce Fulfillment Advice
While you can get decent advice online, sometimes you need to speak with an expert to get fulfillment right your first time.
Instead of speculating with friends, consider giving OTW shipping a call to see what effective fulfillment at great prices really sounds like.
Our job is helping clients take fulfillment into their own hands, often for the first time. We’ve created an entire blog filled with fulfillment advice you can browse through. We’re also happy to give you recommendations and quotes free of charge.
Most 3PLs treat client relationships like transactions. We designed our business to feel like in-house fulfillment for your business. OTW Shipping is for growing ecommerce brands that crave the same service large brands receive every single day.
When you ship with OTW, you get:
99.99% order accuracy
Multiple shipping carriers
Transparent rates and custom quotes
2-day ground shipping to 90% of the US
Access to a Slack-like channel where you can chat with any member of our team directly
State-of-the-art warehouse management software
Partnerships with some of the best ecommerce growth agencies in the business
And much more
Interested in a quote? Get your personalized rates now. We're happy to chat.
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