Getting involved in ecommerce isn’t just an attractive proposition, it is an essential part of the modern day retail sector.
With less people than ever shopping on the high street and more of us choosing to browse and buy online, businesses who ignore the potentials of ecommerce may find the battle to survive insurmountable. If you are thinking of going into ecommerce, here’s all you need to know.
Finding the Right Product
To be successful as an ecommerce business, the first factor that you must consider is what you are going to sell. Get this right and you will have cleared the most difficult hurdle – get it wrong and it unlikely that the business will fly.
Convinced that you have great ideas for the products you want to sell? Then next consider how you will source them, how much you will pay for them and the margins for gross profit – that is to say after all other costs have been deducted. If, after doing this, you are still convinced that you have found the right product, then you maybe on to a winner.
A Digital Outlet
Whilst many ecommerce businesses may start life trading on a platform such as eBay, ultimately you will need a website of your own and some degree of technical knowhow. Even out-of-the-box ecommerce platforms like PrestaShop require the user to be able to navigate its content management system (CMS) competently and so the advice is, if you have no experience draft in some help.
The way your website looks, how fast it is and how easy it is to use are paramount to the success of the venture. Start with something relatively simple and then develop it overtime as your experience and confidence grow.
Marketing is Key
Once you have a website, you’ll need to promote it, along with your brand and products. There are many ways in which this can be achieved, but to start with choosing an avenue such as PPC (pay-per-click) makes sense. This is because of its immediacy when it comes to driving traffic to the site and the way in which you can quickly gather insights into what is working and what isn’t.
Other channels that you will want to consider moving forward include; social media marketing and SEO – both of these routes take more time to become established and to provide measurable metrics. Plus, as you progress you will be able to define your target audience with more accuracy and therefore use the likes of social media marketing more effectively.
Shipping the Products
When it comes to having products delivered and shipping the products you have sold it pays to use a reliable courier like National Pallets. Building a relationship with a quality logistics provider will help you build your business and is great for the customer experience.
Following a well thought through business plan and taking small steps to build and develop your ecommerce business will enable you to make a profit and then scale over time.
First posted on: http://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/