A lot of folks these days are looking to start an eCommerce business, but not everyone knows how to kick things off or get their company running smoothly. At the beginning, it’s super important to plan out all the steps and come up with a solid strategy. We’ve put together 5 key steps to help you start and make your business a success.
eCommerce business in two words
This is a business that sells goods or services online. These are classic online stores where we are used to buying goods. The goods can be either our own production or customer’s, while the e-commerce platform acts as a site (for example, Etsy, Amazon).
There are two types of organizations – business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C). Examples of B2B businesses include wholesale suppliers, industrial equipment manufacturers, IT service providers, and many others. Examples of B2C businesses include online retail stores (clothing, food, beauty, and health products).
Why should you start an eCommerce business?
Did you know that around 22% of all sales come from eCommerce? Honestly, you can totally make this your main gig or just a side hustle. There are a bunch of great perks to it so let’s see them:
- You can earn passively;
- You can work anywhere;
- There is potential for rapid growth;
- Easier to manage your time and resources.
A prime example of a successful eCommerce business is Amazon. Initially, it was a small startup that developed very quickly, and today has become a vast marketplace with no analogs in the world.
Start an eCommerce business by steps
Launching an eCommerce business is a rather complicated process because you need to think through everything to the smallest detail. In addition to the classic steps in creating a business, you should create the best software you can and build a retail testing strategy that helps to keep the software without errors and problems during all lifecycle. We have identified 5 main stages that you need to overcome.
1. Research and test your business strategy
You must carefully study the market and highlight your main competitors. Next, you need to understand how your project fundamentally differs from theirs and what unusual things you can offer your customers.
You should also find out the opinion of your competitors’ customers and understand what they would like to receive. Market analysis involves collecting and analyzing a vast amount of data, which can take a long time. You can ask data analysts to do this work for you.
2. Find original products
Once you figure out what you wanna sell, you need to find trustworthy suppliers. There are a bunch of ways to sell stuff. You can make your own products, buy them from manufacturers to store, or go with drop shipping. It really comes down to how much cash you want to put into your biz in the beginning.
3. Choosing an online sales channel
If you need more experience with eCommerce, you can use something as simple as social media pages. So, you can start selling your product through Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest. You can also create your store based on Amazon.
When your project becomes more successful, you can create your own website or mobile application, which allows you to sell products or services more effectively.
4. Creation of an online store
An online store is a reasonably complex software with several required attributes – the main page, product cards, shopping cart, payment, etc. You may select testing services to ensure your ecommerce software (like web or mobile apps) works correctly and performs the necessary functions and the critical bugs don’t affect your business.
When creating an online store, special attention should be paid to the following:
- Creation of an attractive main page;
- Create a competitive selection of products and beautiful product cards;
- Expand the choice of payment methods and ensure the security of transactions;
- Ensure the security of clients’ data;
- Consider delivery terms.
Everything on your site should encourage a person to take action, namely, to buy your products or services.
5. Marketing and promotion of your business
First, you need to do SEO optimization of your site. It is crucial that search engines like your platform. SEO optimization can take a lot of time and requires financial investments, but it will ensure a stable influx of traffic for a long time.
You should also develop a marketing strategy, advertise in the media and increase your audience on social networks. You should also formulate various promotions and special offers, set up an email newsletter, and create multiple strategies to stimulate buyers to action.
Here are a few tips that might be helpful to you
Unfortunately, there is no universal scheme that will help any business become successful, but we can highlight a few tips that may be useful to you:
- Invest in your company’s recognizable branding;
- Avoid common mistakes when choosing products;
- Create a plan for the implementation of your products;
- Collect real reviews;
- Use A/B testing for product cards;
- Regularly conduct analytics.
It will be good to involve business analysts who will help you track the activity of your users and give helpful advice on how your company can grow.
