Things to Know Before Starting An Online E-Commerce Business – Starting an E-Commerce is the hottest thing in the business world right now and the data proves it.
There has never been a better time. People have gotten accustomed to staying at home and shopping for goodies.
Not that E-Commerce wasn’t flourishing earlier, but now the bull has been let loose, unchained and it nowhere appears to stop.
In times like this, it only makes sense to start an online e-commerce business.
A lot of people are scared of starting an e-commerce business simply because they are worried about Titans like Amazon and Walmart. But here is the thing, Amazon and Walmart have overall dominated the consumer goods there is always a chance for you to niche down and carve your own niche.
And believe me when I say this, just as early as a year ago or a couple of months ago the ecompreneurs who launched their e-commerce stores are experiencing incredible profits right now.
As gloomy as it may appear there are still some things that you need to know before starting your online store
1. Competition
The best time to start an online store was 8 years ago and I would say that the best next time is right now!
Don’t let that “Competition” headline scare you.
But then I can’t also say that it’s a cakewalk because it simply ain’t. 8 years ago there were very few pet essentials e-commerce stores.
Right now there are nearly +100,000 online stores selling pet commodities online with a website.
This means that you still have a chance to niche down and enter a micro-niche that is profitable and has incredible demand at the same time.
The lesson to learn here is that don’t go and open a full-fledged store that sells everything like Amazon.Up to a great extent, e-commerce stores rely on search engine optimization to drive sales. Relying just upon ads to drive sales can burn your cashflows in the long run.
That’s why consideration of a less competitive niche search demand-wise is very important.
2. Credibility is important
You need to treat your online e-commerce business as an entity. Don’t treat it like a thing that makes you money.
Don’t shy away from making little investments in things like an online business license that helps you build credibility.
Some other things that help a lot with this are online branding, social media marketing & influencer marketing.
Right now these things won’t seem important but in the long run, you will be glad that you invested in this.
Customers want to do business with brands that are credible and accountable for their actions and acts responsibly.
3. Marketing is vital
Starting an online e-commerce business isn’t as simple as launching the website and expecting to receive orders. If only it were that simple.
To make people aware of your online store you need to leverage digital marketing tactics like paid acquisition and search engine optimization along with other activities like Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Influencer Marketing & PR.
These are the set of activities that you are gonna have to do on a consistent basis to bring sales to your online store.
And please please please don’t go on a path to (I’ll do this myself) you will end up wasting time and money.
There are experts in these domains, let the experts handle this for you while you take care of the core aspects of your business like inventory management, procurement, R&D, etc.
4. Choose the right e-commerce platform
What the right e-commerce platform is for me depends on just one question.
Are you a tech person or do techy things repel and frustrates you?
If you can handle some techy sophisticated things then WordPress is the right platform for you, it is not super sophisticated, what you get is an intuitive UI to handle things. There are a few sophistications that are needed to navigate across the site.
I recommend WordPress because it’s highly customizable and that helps greatly with search engine optimization.
If technology & sophistication frustrates you don’t think anymore and go right ahead with Shopify.
It’s super helpful and you can handle it without always requiring a tech person’s help. On the dashboard you get to see what the sales are like and you can effortlessly navigate to different sections of the website with ease.
Then there are some other platforms like Open Cart, Web Flow, and more which come with their own set of pros and cons.
This is a decision you have to take while launching your e-commerce store with thoughtful deliberation, reversing things months later can ruin a lot of ongoing things.
5. Multi-channel approach essential
Generating sales from your own online store is important obviously but at the same time, it is also important that you take advantage of other online marketplaces where you can list your product and find customers for your products.
There are some great marketplaces like Amazon, Gumtree, Esty and so many more.