Generations before us, in the previous three to four decades, it would probably not be clear what it means to start an eCommerce business.
This text aims to offer you answers to questions and dilemmas if you are thinking about founding your eCommerce business. There are as well steps that can bring you closer to the realization of your idea.
What Does Ecommerce Business Mean?
The entire eCommerce business ecosystem has been growing for some time. The vast majority of shops have been closed since the beginning of the pandemic, with no chance of opening them.
- Some businesses cannot keep enough goods in their warehouses and on shelves.
- The system of ordering online, distribution, and delivery have flourished.
- Courier services cannot deliver as fast as we order.
There are a few questions you need to have an answer to if you want to open your eCommerce brand.
How Do I Start an Ecommerce Brand?
Creating an eCommerce website is neither easy nor a simple job. You may not have a physical store that you have to paint, brand, and fill with goods, but certainly, nothing ends overnight.
However, it is predicted that 95% of trade will be done through eCommerce stores, i.e. in virtual frames. The range of stores that deal with eCommerce business sell and distribute:
- goods
- services
- cash over the internet.
If you have decided to engage in this type of business, we have for you a few steps recommended by various sources:
Explore the Market and Find Your Niche
If you are planning to open a restaurant, you will check the part of the city where you would like to open a new facility, how many restaurants are in the area that offer food or drinks.
This means that they would also check the competition, as is the case with the eCommerce business. On the other hand, you need to find a product that has its audience and customers.
As well as the answer to the question: why do you need that product?
If you have a product that you plan to sell online, you also need to organize how the product will reach your customers. This means that a distribution system must be organized, and a courier service must be selected to deliver the product.
Choose the name of your eCommerce business and the legal form
We believe that it is confusing enough to start and think about all the things that may be a problem. That is why our advice is for the second step to be the legal form of your eCommerce business.
The suggestion is that the name of your eCommerce business is unique, memorable, striking but that it clearly says what it is about. Be sure to check if the name is already taken and who is using it.
Be more thorough in choosing the name that will represent your online shop.
In addition, it is important to consider the form of your eCommerce business and whether it will be:
- LLC,
- Sole proprietorship,
- general partnership or
- corporation
This part of founding may be very difficult to understand and laborious to do, but an eCommerce business needs to exist and generate revenue for you.
It is important to register and get adequate numbers, link your contacts with them. That means your phone number and email address are visible so that potential customers can find you by typing keywords on the Internet.
The place of work must obtain all necessary licenses and permits, it must have a registered location to be able to operate legally. You must have all the necessary documentation before your store launches its first product or service you provide.
Creating an eCommerce platform and store design
Although it is not physically set up, your online store deserves equal attention and creativity. That said, it needs to attract the attention of customers, communicate with them through social networks.
This is possible in several steps:
- choose the eCommerce platform for building stores
- payment institutions
- webshop design and social media channels to communicate with the target group.
The website is a “shop window” of your store, which is why the name of the site must be related to your store. You need to include a platform for selling products or services in it, and some sources recognize several types of such platforms.
“Fill your store” with the products you will sell or the services you offer. If the products you make are, you need to make a good catalog of all the products, descriptions, keywords, and high-quality photos.
If you are offering services, take care of the detailed description. Find the keywords that will be found, to make the job easier for search engines by optimizing the terms. You can find more about SEO on our website.
Entering the market with your eCommerce business
Now that you have laid the foundation, a longer, more complex, but also more creative part of the work follows. If you work on the Internet at this historic moment, you have the best chance of succeeding in all previous periods!
There are never more opportunities, forms, and ways to do business online. This is primarily because making a website is never easier.
Some platforms offer to make it completely free, with very easy tutorials for designing and fitting elements of your future online store. Our recommendation is to consult professionals who will do this part of creating a store for you, in a significantly shorter time.
In the meantime, you can have fun creating visuals and choosing an identity to post on social media. Plan between 7-12% of marketing costs, because although they vary, they are a significant part of the investment.
How much does it cost to start an eCommerce brand?
To open a store in real-time and physical space, we can list expenses like renting a store, advertising, fees, overhead costs… Although you are “freed” from these things by opening a virtual shop, you are not spared all the costs.
Here are just a few of them:
- Licenses and permits, business registration
- Domain and website hosting (OpenVZ VPS recommended)
- Shopping platform with all the accessories you need to create a range of products and services
- Payment
- Inventory and product distribution
- Marketing and advertising (internet promotion, ads, boost, campaigns on social media)
- Additional costs that are no less important: staff, office costs, hired consultants, equipment…
Maybe it’s not bad to put everything on paper or notes and predict the type of costs that await you before you find out its exact amount. This depends on the local or regional government, which may have different rules from country to country.
Choosing a platform for setting up a store can affect the cost of making them free in the basic package. But, the accessories can cost significantly, which is why it is important to decide what you want.
The closer you get to the answers to all the questions, the easier it will be to start your business.
Is it profitable to start an eCommerce business?
If you are still holding on to the desire to start an eCommerce business, we want to congratulate you!
Below, we will write some tips on how to start and maintain a profitable eCommerce business:
- Start slowly and modestly: don’t get carried away and expect quick earnings overnight, because you’ll be disappointed if the results don’t come as fast as you planned.
- Use all possible platforms and social networks to build your presence and the presence of your products and services on the Internet.
- Building brand awareness on the Internet can also be free if it is built in the long run through blogging, email marketing, and building customer relationships with the product.
There are many advantages to opening online instead of a real store. There is much less work before opening, costs are lower, and the store can work 24/7.
When set up stably, the store can expand in terms of the choice of products or services you offer or even the locations your products can reach.
You can create a store by delivering products to every corner of the planet.
The most important piece of advice we can offer you is to dedicate yourself to the work of your shop because if people do not see you in person, they are skeptical.
Your story has to be authentic and communicate with them their needs. Then they are willing to buy your product or pay for the service you offer. Then you can expect success in your work.
Let us know if our advice helped you?
If you have more questions and dilemmas, you are in the right place, check out more information on our website.
Author
Bruce Webb is a digital marketing specialist and freelance blogger. He is devoted to exploring digital marketing trends, new technologies and sharing knowledge across the web. In his spare time, he writes a lot about new business strategies and digital marketing for DigitalStrategyOne.