Businesses involved in ecommerce have flourished in the last several decades. Nowadays, customers prefer to shop online rather than at a physical store because shopping online is more convenient. Starting an ecommerce business allows you to become your own boss and profit from the convenience of your home.
Getting your online business up and running in no time and with little effort may seem impossible to many, but did you know? There are ready-made ecommerce platforms like Shopify that help you get your online commerce store up and running in no time.
With the right tools in place, you will quickly be able to launch a successful online business that will generate sales. As you read on, we will walk you through a few quick steps to start your own ecommerce business:
Step 1: Develop A Strong Business Foundation For Your Ecommerce Business
Ecommerce success requires an ecommerce business to be built on a solid foundation. This phase can be broken down into four steps:
1. Identify A Product Niche
Not all niches are created equal.
Developing a successful business online is all about focusing on a particular niche. As ecommerce businesses become more and more competitive, it is more important than ever to select a niche that allows you to compete with established online business owners and key industry players. If you are planning on running an ecommerce business that sells clothing, for example, why not narrow it down to focus specifically on oversized children’s clothing, exotic women’s clothing, or headwear for hikers?
You must ask yourself the 3 following questions –
- What products will my intended business sell? Are they trendy, new, or evergreen?
- Do I plan on staying in business for a long time?
- Is my business primarily aimed at selling its products to consumers or other businesses?
With the correct answers, you can concentrate your e-commerce business on a niche that will be profitable for a long period of time. You can brainstorm profitable niches that generate more money for your business with the AMZScout or Jungle Scout, which is a tool to facilitate this process.
2. Create a Unique Business Model
Your next step once you’ve chosen a niche is to plan how your business is going to be different. By doing so, you can keep your business ahead of the competition. A great approach to beating your potential competitors is by figuring out what they are doing and what they are not doing that makes their businesses successful.
Here are some questions you might want to consider:
- Is there anything special about the business?
- What strategy do they use to attract customers?
- Are they advertising on any particular platforms?
- How can they improve their business?
Once you answer these questions, you simply need to build upon their business model to make your business successful than theirs.
3. Build A Uniquely Recognizable Brand For Your E-commerce Business
Building a brand for your online business is a surefire way to succeed. Think about branding your business in all aspects, from your business name to your logo, to your sales and marketing copy. The branding of your ecommerce business is essential as a way to set it apart from your competitors.
You can contact GrowBizx for a free consultation to validate your branding ideas and to get expert execution at affordable prices.
Start by selecting a perfect business name, which should also serve as the domain name for your website. The best way to find your perfect business name is to visit online business name generators from sites like Shopify or Oberlo. Once you find a name you like, head over to places like Namecheap or PorkBun to book your domain before anyone else gets their hands on it.
4. Obtain A Business License
The most crucial step when starting any business, be it ecommerce or otherwise, is to register your business legally. Making money legally should be your goal, so you should consider incorporating your business. Choosing whether your business will be a partnership, corporation, sole proprietorship, or LLC business is essential before you register it. A local CPA will be able to guide you well, often for free.
Next, you will need to register your business name so that your business can obtain the permits and licenses it needs to operate legally. If you get it right, you will be saved from future legal dilemmas.
Step 2: Identify Low-capital, Low-risk Products To Source From India, Bangladesh, Or Other Asian Countries
These 3 factors will primarily influence how you find products to sell on your ecommerce site.
- Niche of your product
- Start-up capital
- Availability of your time
It is possible to sell hand-made products on platforms like Etsy. Alternatively, you can source products from wholesalers to sell on Amazon, eBay, or through your own Shopify store.
Dropshipping is an excellent route for starting an online business that involves low capital and low risk. You don’t have to worry about procurement, warehousing, and shipping with dropshipping. Having your own drop ship store is as easy as finding profitable products, adding products to your ecommerce store, and selling them to customers. Orders placed in your store are then routed to your supplier, who will be responsible for fulfilling all orders.
Dropshipping looks like the ideal business model to get into ecommerce, but it has its downfalls, so tread with caution.
Step 3: Choose The Right Channel Of Distribution
Selecting a suitable method for selling your products online is the next step after sourcing products. There are many options for selling online, including your own store or other online marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon, and Etsy. If you want to grow and market your business, you should consider creating an online store where customers can shop directly.
Here is how you can set up an online store the right way:
1. Choose The Platform That’s Best Suited For Your Ecommerce Business
When it comes to building an online store, you can choose from a variety of self-hosted or hosted platforms. Self-hosted platforms like WooCommerce, Magento, and PrestaShop make running your own store on your servers easy. However, you’re responsible for customizing and handling each aspect of your website.
2. Determine Your Costs And Expenses
Cloud-based (SaaS) platforms such as Shopify and BigCommerce do not need clients to install software or host servers. Those are all included in a single package for your convenience. These platforms also make maintenance easy.
These softwares charge you a monthly fee which may be a cost you would want to consider when deciding the proper channels of distribution. Self-hosted options also incur expenses but often less than a done-for-you SaaS platform’s fee.
3. Get A Team In Place
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you’re going to go far, go together. This is the motto we follow for our businesses. You can’t go very far doing everything yourself, and it’s ideal to have a team in place before you start building your business as business support services are crucial for the growth of any ecommerce business.
Optional – Do A Course
If this is your first time doing the tango, learning the ins and outs can help you scale your business quickly. There are various courses that teach you how to run a profitable ecommerce business or dropshipping business.
Now, you can import products for Amazon or your ecommerce store.
Step 4: Promote And Market Your Ecommerce Business
You have now completed the three steps necessary to bring your business online. Having accomplished that much so far has been an outstanding achievement, but without any marketing efforts, it is not a guarantee of success. Analyzing your competitors is essential in this phase using various tracking tools. These five strategies are sure to place your ecommerce store at the top of potential customers’ minds:
1. Social Media Marketing
A majority of people are using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. You should create accounts for your ecommerce business on the popular platforms that your target audience uses. By sharing relevant content with this audience, you can generate leads for your ecommerce store. These leads will gradually turn into sales.
2. Content Marketing
To capture the attention of your target audience, develop content that is informative and helpful. You can accomplish this by writing thoughtful blog posts that answer the most important questions from your readers. Using photos and videos of your products, you could provide your potential customers with information about your company while marketing your offering.
Content Writing 101 is a great ecommerce content marketing agency that can help you create content for your blogs and websites at scale.
3. Search Engine Optimization
By researching and using effective SEO techniques, you’ll be able to rank higher on search engine result pages. You can use keyword planners or keyword finders to identify precisely what your customers are searching for when they are looking for your products on the Internet. Utilize these keywords to rank on page one of search engines if you want to optimize your website content.
Tools like Ahrefs, SEMRush, Ubersuggest work well. If you’re someone who doesn’t want to learn a new skill, outsourcing SEO is a great option.
4. Search Engine Marketing
Search engine optimization or SEO is a technique that requires a lot of time and patience to show results. If you’re someone who prefers having instant results for your marketing, then Search Engine Marketing or search engine advertising is the best option for your ecommerce business. It allows you to show ads to people who are searching for specific keywords related to your ecommerce store or product.
5. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is one of the most popular techniques of marketing ecommerce products, especially in the fashion and beauty industry. Collaborations with industry influencers help businesses reach a wider audience and showcase their product. Choosing the right influencer can be difficult, but once you have a process in place, it is gratifying.
Conclusions
Your ecommerce store is sure to succeed if you follow these simple steps and launch it. Once you’ve created a successful ecommerce business, you must expand. Your business can earn more revenue from multiple channels or by adding more product categories to your site.
Use these steps to build out your own ecommerce store on Amazon, Ety, eBay, or on your own domain. If you have any questions or comments about this post, please feel free to leave them below. I hope that you will find it helpful to your business.
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