5 Easy Steps to Launching a Profitable E-Commerce Business
We’re living in a time where if you don’t already have an online business, you’re missing out on a lot of profits. It’s not easy to start an eCommerce business. It takes time, effort, and patience. It demands multiple decisions and procedures to come together. Only then can you generate an excellent income. This comprehensive eCommerce business startup guide will help you tie those knots.
Starting an eCommerce Business In 2019
If you want to start an eCommerce business, you first need an outline, a solid plan. You need to know exactly what type of product you want to sell.
Furthermore, you need to understand your buyer personas to sell those products effectively. Thus, we’ve put together five easy steps to eCommerce success:
- Pick Your Niche
- Choose A Business Model
- Set Up Your eCommerce Business
- Attract the Right Audience
- Scale Your eCommerce Store
Let’s check them out!
Step 1: Pick Your Niche
Your eCommerce business has to be niche-specific. You just cannot expect to sell whatever you want and get huge profits. Many eCommerce sites are filled with dozens of categories and hundreds of products, but there’s no focus. You cannot become the next Best Buy or Amazon overnight unless you boast a solid plan and have a big investment. Therefore, it would be better if you narrow down your plan to run a successful startup.
To create a business plan, consider using a free business plan template, which is a document that’s already formatted for your eCommerce needs. It will lay out the major sections and subsections to include in your plan. You’re basically typing in your answers to questions, and your plan is done! It’s by no means quick and easy, but it will prompt you to come up with optimal strategies, which is a must in an eCommerce business.
Once you have a plan, start identifying other eCommerce businesses that are already successful in your chosen industry to make sure you have a solid competition.
However, don’t choose an overly crowded niche. While an absence of competition typically means there’s no market for your product, you should always skip something that’s dominated by giant companies because you don’t want to be invisible in the market.
Step 2: Choose A Business Model
You’ve chosen your niche, so the next step is to come up with a proper business model. Remember, there’s not a single eCommerce business structure that will work for every entrepreneur.
If you want to earn big profits without investing a fortune, consider dropshipping. It’s a smart and cost-effective solution.
Want your own warehouse? You’ll be investing more upfront while working on a warehouse or wholesale business model.
If you have a unique product to offer, consider selling it under your own brand. And to do that, you’ll have to choose the white labeling and manufacturing eCommerce business model.
Step 3: Set Up Your eCommerce Business
You have your niche and business model ready. Now it’s time to start your eCommerce business!
You must identify your business persona; become the brand that connects with its buyers’ personas. Remember, the classification of buyer personas makes starting an eCommerce store easier.
Understanding your customer’s persona is crucial because it leads your business to greater success.
Here’s what you need to do:
#1. Select a Name
Your eCommerce store and its website’s name don’t need to be identical. Keeping them consistent, however, has its benefits. Make sure the name fits perfectly with your niche
#2. Register Your eCommerce Business
Your eCommerce business now has a name, so consider registering it. You may not be aware of this, but there are several legal protections and advantages that come with a registered business. Do not skip it at any cost!
#3. Get Your Licenses
Running an online business doesn’t exclude you from licenses and permits. Make sure to check what sorts of business licenses are required in your country and get them before you begin operating.
#4. Time for Visuals
Get a decent logo. Make sure it’s not similar to your competitors’. Consider what colors you want your business to represent. Also, consider what fonts you will use throughout your eCommerce site. You can hire a professional if that fits your budget. If not, run things manually, as long as you’re consistent.
#5. Optimize Your Help Desk Software
Help desk software is a platform that enables you to give support to your customers with concerns, inquiries, and complaints regarding your brand, product, or service. It unifies queries from different customer support channels like live chat, web contact forms, email integration, mobile, and social media.
In most helpdesk platforms, including Zendesk, you cannot see your eCommerce data within the platform. In many cases, this information can improve customer relationships by showcasing that your agents are aware of the actions your customers have been taking on your eCommerce store.
Therefore, consider a Zendesk alternative that includes this important data in a single dashboard. It will quickly enhance your support knowledge base.
Step 4: Attract the Right Audience
There’s little to no guarantee that your audience will find you once you go live, which is why you should market your online business. You can start with optimizing your site according to the latest SEO standards.
Keep essential keywords in focus for your landing pages and put them in your URLs too. Driving traffic to your eCommerce site should be your number one mission.
You’re already aware of the power of social media when it comes to starting your eCommerce store’s marketing and sales campaigns. Consider adding LinkedIn as part of your promotion as well. It’s one of the best platforms for both B2B and B2C businesses.
With a robust LinkedIn tool, you can automate your work to gain brand awareness, share valuable content, and connect with your audience in the easiest way possible. For example, you can build a targeted mailing list, boost your profile, and get plenty of endorsements from other LinkedIn users in no time.
Step 5: Scale Your eCommerce Store
As mentioned earlier, starting an online business is no joke, and scaling it becomes a hassle for even the professionals. Once your business is growing, you’ll notice an increase in your sales too. However, don’t consider this as a success. Not yet.
To meet your buyers’ demands, you must scale your business to outgrow your operations. It’s not that hard; you just need to keep an eye on your Key Performance Indicators, otherwise known as KPIs. These in-depth statistics will provide you with enough data to help make your future decisions.
Consider measuring the following eCommerce KPIs:
- Sales per month
- Visitor conversion rate
- Average order size
- Site traffic
- Cart abandonment rate
- Traffic sources
- Email Subscribers
- How long a visitor stays on your site
- Social media followers
If all this seems complicated, don’t worry. You can always find an eCommerce business for sale online. You don’t necessarily have to start from scratch as there are alternatives. However, buying an eCommerce business requires you to approach business listings with sheer knowledge and caution.
Make sure to do your research in order to determine whether or not it’s worth the investment and can bring profits in the long run.
Wrapping Up
The Internet is growing healthily, and if you’re starting an eCommerce business in 2019, it will certainly enjoy the advantages of that growth.
No matter what niche you pick or which business model you choose, make sure to start optimizing your eCommerce site a month or two before you go live. This will give you enough time to implement effective, eCommerce marketing strategies.
About the Author
Bibhuranjan Editorial Officer, technofaq.org I'm an avid tech enthusiast at heart. I like to mug up on new and exciting developments on science and tech and have a deep love for PC gaming. Other hobbies include writing blog posts, music and DIY projects.
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