Are you interested in launching an e-Commerce business? With some skill, luck and hard work, it could be your one-way ticket to success. Look at some past e-Commerce startups, such as Amazon and eBay, that are now global titans of online shopping. This helpful article will give you some key advice on how to start from scratch and build an e-Commerce business from the ground up, so read on to prepare for your potential future business.
Build an Excellent Website
We cannot stress how important it is to have a professional, high-quality website in e-commerce, no matter what you sell. For that reason, getting professional e-Commerce web design in Melbourne might be the way to go when launching a new business. A functional, well-designed website could make or break your new business. Your website needs to be user-friendly, easy to navigate, secure, and show all the items that you stock. Website users will quickly exit a hard-to-navigate, dodgy-looking website, and the last thing you want is a high bounce rate. A great website should be the cornerstone of your e-Commerce business.
Invest in Stock
Without items to sell, your newly founded e-Commerce business won’t get anywhere. You should invest in enough stock to be able to fulfil orders as they come in via your new excellent website. Whether you’re selling pet products, supplements, or board games, you’ll need to order wholesale stock to keep your business running and keep shipping items out the door.
This may mean working with a wholesaler or manufacturer, where you can order stock in bulk for a discount. Usually, the more items you order from a wholesaler, the cheaper the discount, which you can then mark-up for a tidy profit and generate revenue for your startup.
Research the Competition
Unless you’re selling an incredibly niche product, there will be stiff competition out there on the web. Part of an effective launch strategy for a new e-Commerce business is understanding the competition. You should know how much competitors are charging for equivalent items and their policies so you can stand out in the crowded market. This may take a while as you research the competition and develop a way of tracking data, such as through a document or spreadsheet.
Develop a Business Plan
What is a business plan, you ask? Well, no e-Commerce startup should launch without an in-depth outline of business practices, policies, etcetera. In very simple terms, a business plan is a simple guide or a roadmap for your new business. It is typically written as a business is being founded. It will set out some achievable goals and how you might go about completing them.
For example, suppose your e-Commerce business is just starting up. In that case, your first business plan might include:
- Launching your excellent website.
- Achieving your first 10 or 20 sales.
- Building up an email marketing contact list and a social media presence.
You should also calculate your profit margin in your business plan. This is the amount of money you will make on sales after expenses such as purchasing stock, domain hosting, and marketing are deducted.
As your business grows, you can update your business plan accordingly to prepare to scale up
and increase your sales and operations. It should be a living document that you edit based on your current business performance.
Develop Your Brand
Once you’ve achieved the first few steps presented here, it’s time to develop your brand, logo and graphic design style. You can do this yourself using Canva or another easy-to-use graphic design tool. Still, you should seriously consider enlisting a graphic designer who can build a brand identity for you, including a logo and style guide.
Do Email Marketing Right
Email marketing is highly effective and a proven strategy to generate sales. There is often a huge return on investment for each dollar you spend on email marketing. You can use specialised email marketing tools to achieve outcomes such as segmenting your messaging, performing AB testing, and sending targeted emails that will personalise the experience of interacting with your e-Commerce brand. Customers feel great when they feel like a brand knows them and, as a result, they will trust and purchase from you.
Invest in Social Media Presence
There are over 5 billion social media users online each day. That’s a staggering amount of people online at any given moment. While a vast majority won’t be potential customers for your e-Commerce startup, the remaining percentage within the scope of your target audience is likely still considerable. A solid social media presence is a tremendous marketing strategy, as brands with solid engagement and strong messaging can increase their sales exponentially. You should be able to integrate with the various social media platforms to reach customers, interact with them, promote your business, and funnel them through to sales. You can build up your brand loyalty and reach new followers by having an active social media presence combined with unique, engaging content. Make sure that you don’t limit yourself to one platform — get active on all of them. Invest in growing your brand presence on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, as well as any others that might be relevant to you. You could even look into a social media management and scheduling app to reduce the time spent curating content and posting or outsource this to an agency as you quickly scale up the business.
This helpful article has tips for starting an e-Commerce business from scratch. The advice in this article should be that you are well on your way to achieving success in the online shopping space as long as you follow it closely and put in the effort.