28 Dec
Building a successful ecommerce business is not that easy as the ecommerce business industry is exploding. You have to start preparing beforehand so that you stay behind your competitors.
After all, without the need for a brick-and-mortar location, ecommerce businesses offer greater flexibility, affordability, and opportunity for many entrepreneurs. So, how exactly do you start an online business?
We’ll break down how to start a successful ecommerce business in some simple steps, so that you have all the information you need to get your online business up and running in no time.
How to start a successful ecommerce business?
Although there are notable differences in starting an ecommerce business compared to starting a brick-and-mortar business there are also a number of similarities.
When you think how to start an ecommerce business that will succeed, the following factors probably come to mind:
- Great website design
- Top-notch customer support
- A high-quality product image
- Unique selling proposition
These points are absolutely correct but you also have to provide excellent customer support to be successful. You also need an attractive and trustworthy website if you want people to buy from you.
Step 1: Research the ecommerce space and find your niche
Beginning your research is the first critical step. There isn’t a single business structure that works for everyone. Before you can decide on what to sell online, you need to understand the different business models available.
If you want to turn a profit without touching your product or investing heavily at the start, drop shipping or print on demand is a smart choice. If you like the idea of having your own warehouse full of goodies, you’re investing more up front and working with a wholesaling or warehousing (retail) model.
There are subscriptions also, where you carefully curate a set of products or a single product to be delivered at regular intervals to your customers.
Step 2: Find ecommerce product
When you are totally new to the ecommerce world, you might be thinking what to sell? You have to choose some unique products which are not easy to find in stores and not popular on other ecommerce sites. Start by making a list of potential products you might like to sell in your store. Think about things that you, your friends, coworkers, or family would be interested in.
There really is inspiration everywhere once you start looking, and you can always verify whether your product ideas are any good by searching for them on Google trends. Also explore social selling sites like Pinterest, Etsy, or even Instagram for more input on what to sell.
Now, you might be thinking how to source your products? Here is the point when you think about dropshipping.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a streamlined form of retail business wherein the seller accepts customer orders but does not keep goods sold in stock. It is a popular business model among entrepreneurs because it is generally a lower risk alternative to more traditional ecommerce business models that require you to find suppliers and stock inventory yourself.
It works like this: you find suppliers of products you’d like to sell on an ecommerce marketplace like Oberlo, and then you import those items into your store. When a customer purchases one of those items, you then place the order with one of our exceptional suppliers, and they ship the item directly to the customer. This way you never have to handle merchandise.
Step 3: Research
This is an essential part for any successful ecommerce. Once you have decided what products to sell , now look at your competitors websites. Do complete research on what they are doing? Which products are trending? What marketing tactics are they using? Do competitors invest heavily in ads or are they slow to become more digital?
Research can lead you to identify better products to sell and give you a great understanding of how to start a successful ecommerce business. It can also help you avoid dropshipping mistakes entrepreneurs often make with product selection.
Here are a few things to pay attention to when researching competitors to make sure you take everything you can into account when it comes to ecommerce business success.
- What is their business model
- Are they selling multiple items or just one product
- What social media channels do they utilize
- Who is their target market
- How do they push sales (e.g. paid social, PPC, SEO, email, etc)
- How engaged and loyal are their audience
Step 4: Build your online store
Now here is the main part. After all the research and choosing which product to sell, you have to build your website on which you can sell your products. The most significant decision is choosing an ecommerce platform. Whether an all-in-one software, like Shopify, or an open-source platform, like Magento, your ecommerce platform will be the base you use to build and develop your online store.
Most ecommerce platforms not only allow you to create and launch your online store, but also customize your design, add your domain (or purchase one), manage inventory, take and ship orders, receive payment, and more. Although there are hundreds of these platforms available on the market, you might consider any of the following popular solutions for starting your ecommerce business:
1. Shopify
Perhaps the most well-known and popular ecommerce software out there, Shopify offers an all-inclusive, user-friendly solution with a variety of add-ons. You can purchase a Shopify subscription in one of four plans, starting with Shopify Lite at $9 per month (this plan doesn’t include a full online store, however).
2. WooCommerce
If you already have started a WordPress site, or are familiar with the platform, you can download WooCommerce to start selling on your WordPress site. This plug-in is open-source, free to download and includes the full range of ecommerce features. Compared to Shopify, however, WooCommerce is best-suited for business owners who have some technical knowledge to take advantage of its open-source nature.
3. Squarespace
Most often thought of as a website builder, Squarespace also offers ecommerce capabilities and is known for their modern templates. You can choose from two ecommerce-specific plans from Squarespace—Basic at $26 per month or Advanced at $40 per month.
Like Shopify, Squarespace is extremely user-friendly and can accommodate business owners of all technical skill levels. This being said, however, as a website builder first, Squarespace may not offer as many features, tools, or add-ons as some other alternatives.
4. Magento
Finally, if you want to be able to customize every aspect of your online store, you might choose to use the open-source version of Magento. With this ecommerce platform, you can manipulate every element and customize your site—but you also must have the technical skill (or pay for it) to do so.
Although it’s safe to say this platform isn’t typically suited for ecommerce beginners, if do have the technical skill needed, or the budget to pay to work with a developer, you’ll find that Magento likely offers the most of any open-source solution on the market—plus, it’s free to download.
There are lots of platforms to choose from. You’ll have to think about cost, features, usability, and more, as the backbone of your ecommerce business you’ll need a functional system that allows you to get up and running and manage your operations on a day-to-day basis. Depending on your platform and budget, you may decide to create and launch your website yourself, or you might invest in a professional designer or developer for assistance.
Once you are done with choosing the platform , you have to choose a suitable theme, a memorable name and a creative logo that people always remember. When your website is ready to start taking orders remember to try a test order yourself to make sure the process is smooth for the customer.
Step 5: Market your business
After you’ve launched your store, concentrate on ecommerce marketing. The best ecommerce marketing is to find the right channel for your products, and then to perfect your marketing strategy until bringing in one new customer costs less than what you earn from a sale.
There are a variety of marketing strategies you might decide to utilize Google ads, social media ads, word of mouth, and more. At the most basic level, you’ll want to optimize your business website for SEO and take advantage of any online marketing tools that are included within your ecommerce platform.
Moreover as your ecommerce business starts to receive orders, you’ll have to keep track of which marketing tactics are working and which aren’t especially if you’re investing money in them. As time progresses, you’ll have to adjust and change your marketing strategy to find what works best for your business.
Succeeding in Ecommerce: What’s Next?
Once you’ve validated your store idea and secured a steady stream of sales, make sure that you keep up with optimizing your ecommerce marketing as you go. Here are a few additional ecommerce business tips that you may want to consider as you frame your ecommerce business plan.
1. Customer service
People abandon their online shopping if you don’t respond to their queries quickly. Customer service is critical to your business’s long term success. Create self-service content and a detailed FAQs page, offer live chat support, incentivize product reviews, and build trust with your customers. All of these will add value to your store.
2. Conversion optimization
Optimize your customer journey. Create limited-time offers. Launch a cart abandonment email campaign. You can even set up a retargeting campaign. Test out a bunch of different tactics and try to understand which one works best for your business. Hence many of the people will leave your site without purchasing.
3. Store optimization
Around 44% of people share their bad shopping experience with their friends and family. Therefore once you have launched your ecommerce business, the next important step is to optimize your website. Improve your website speed. Create an intuitive navigation bar. Focus on creating great product pages. Display related items. Optimize your store search. Lastly, check how your store looks on mobile devices.
4. Inventory
Constantly look for new product ideas that could keep the traffic coming to your store. Do not rely on just a few products to drive all your sales. Rather, offer new arrivals to your existing customers and frequently test new product ideas based on Google trends.
Conclusion
Starting an ecommerce business isn’t always easy but by taking one step at a time, you can make the process more manageable and have your online store up and running fairly quickly.
Don’t worry about having the perfect product or the best looking web design for your store in the beginning. Jump in and learn by doing. You should treat your ecommerce website like any other business – obtain the necessary permits, invest in customer retention and communication, and don’t forget about building a mobile-friendly platform.
Hopefully, this article has helped you to understand how to start an ecommerce business. You’ve got everything you need at your fingertips to have a successful business. Still if you find any difficulty in building your ecommerce store, we are here to help you!