Social Media, Web Design, Digital Marketing, SEO – Tools for a successful E-commerce business

 
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As the world continues to tackle what is probably the strongest and most impactful global pandemic that we have known in our generation, there are a few facets of industry and commerce which stand to gain from the grinding halt that the COVID 19 has brought our way of living to. With a distinct yet seismic shift from physical retail to purchasing everything online, the E-commerce industry, housing several small and large online businesses are most certainly one of them.

The social and societal precautions that we are urged to follow to try and keep COVID 19 at a distance while the world finds a vaccine and then hopefully a cure encourage minimal physical interaction paving the way for a kind of transaction that can be generated within the safety of your home or office and delivered to your doorstep with minimal contact and maximum efficiency. Mom and pop stores had already seen their time before the virus became a very potent reality in our lives and if small businesses must function now with any degree of efficiency and profitability, they will have to do so within the scope of the much larger and evolving online spectrum. 

Even as we speak, in 2020, there are an estimated 12 million to 24 million registered E-commerce sites across the globe, with literally thousands more being created with alarming frequency. These are the sort of numbers that tell you why you should know and want to start your own E-commerce business with an eye on your financial future.

Why E-commerce

Honestly, for the times that we are living and working in, the question must be "why not E-commerce?" And there is no real answer that will withstand the test of time and logic as well. What could one possibly not like about a larger marketplace, lower costs, infinite opportunities to sell, control over scaling up and down abilities, and so much more?

How does one not appreciate real-time customer insights through algorithm-based tracking and almost immediate response to emerging market demands and customer trends that are about to become the next big thing in the short term?

Add to this the instant sales to instant gratification ratio and the ability to be personalized with your target audience in any and every corner of the world and you technically have a business model which gives you the very best of physical retail without the actual need to be physically present to sell your wares. 

If all the benefits above have convinced you to start running your E-commerce model, you will also need to have a few handy recommendations on how best to start it up and then more importantly sustain it. 

Starting and sustaining an E-commerce business

The trick to any successful venture is to lay strong foundations in terms of processes and procedures for a smooth journey ahead, right at the very beginning. Establishing an E-commerce business like any other venture requires the same amount of hard work, educated insight, the ability to understand and read trends, research and constant development, innovation to differentiate yourself from what is a rather large pack in a similar marketplace, and of course that small element of luck as well. What we have outlined below are the few important steps that you need to follow to start and successfully sustain your labor of love.

1. Do your Research 

E-commerce has been around long enough in our lives to have several case studies and models which can be referenced and researched depending on how much your investment of both time and effort is towards your startup. One can choose from a wide array of models such as drop shipping, print-on-demand, wholesaling or warehousing, white labeling, manufacturing, affiliate marketing of a single product category, and many more. The key here is to first establish what it is that you want to do and before arriving at an educated answer to that question, you need to research and understand the different things that can possibly be done and done differently under the E-commerce spectrum.

Only in-depth research of trends, revenues, market shares, bottom lines, and effort ratios can help lead you to the answer as to what kind of business model should your own E-commerce start-up want to undertake.

2. Pick a Niche 

If you thought that you were done going through realms of case study material to find yourself the perfect E-commerce business model, think again. Now that you have sourced the internet for different possible directions, it is now time to pick your direction and dive even deeper into the route that your prospective business will be following. Being able to do this goes a long way toward ensuring profitability in the short term before you look to upscale or even diversify.

Do not shy away from the competition. Very rarely does one strike monopolistic gold. An absence of competition points towards a diminishing market with little or no share for your product.

Choose product categories with at least 1000 keywords when focusing on a niche that does well across social media. If you can get some affiliate marketing opportunities coming your way, you won't have to worry about shipping costs and will still be able to turn a profit.

3. Build your Brand Identity

Even before you begin building your brand, it is important to first identify and build a sound and defining brand identity. What is your business all about? What do you sell? Which personalities does your online store resonate with? Whom do you see as your ideal customer? What is your target market? What are your key parameters and across which demographics? All questions that need to be answered before you start loading your online store with the products you sell.

After you have completed your research and before you come down to selling products and services, you need to first establish a consistent and compelling brand identity commonly known as a voice for your business. Online branding to project a constant and recalling image is what needs to be worked on next.

This is a journey which starts with something as basic as the name of the brand, the registration of the company, the look, feel, and ethos that the brand represents, the mission and vision statements for the future in case a venture capitalist should show interest, discerning channels of communication, to name a few.

4. Do the Paperwork

The secret to a successful E-commerce business is for your brand to connect with the persona of your buyers. To be able to identify that persona correctly helps make the brand more sustainable, sellable, and finally successful. Before you can start reaching out to your customers there are the necessary registrations, licensing, patenting, and more that you need to accomplish before you can call yourself a legalized and legitimate corporation or even a company.

Operating online stores does not exclude you from being licensed with certain business permits. Look up and comply with all the registration, licensing, and other paperwork that your country, state, and city need you to comply with. 

5. Create a Business Plan

Vision, effort, dreams, creativity, and the likes will get you this far. Your research is underway, your niche has been decided, your brand identity is complete and now it's time to get to the most important part of it all, the number crunching.

The most important aspect of any business, especially the successful ones, is to have a handle on the finances. This is when you bring out the calculator, sit down with scrolls of paper and working pens and start figuring out important parameters such as the break-even point, both in unit sales and duration, the investment needed, resources required, and forecasted returns to name a few.

This back-calculation, even before you make a sale is the most important fundamental while setting up your business. If this calculation is sound, the business forecast will be sound. Also, in case of emergencies or eventualities outside your control, course correction will be a lot easier and a lot less dire. Get this wrong or start on a hunch or an impulse and you're operating in a way that could lead to a very quick and expensive downfall for your online business.

6. The Online Store

Your online store concept is similar to you buying or leasing a physical shop. This is a tedious yet important process that needs to be undertaken with the utmost care and intense preparation. After all, a first impression needs to be the strongest and in an extremely competitive market, a poor initial impression could well become your last impression as well.

It's time to register your domain name and any redirect URLs that might be relevant. You're going to need to put your brand identity into design form as you go about building your websites and applications from where potential customers can search for, order, and pay for products of their choice.

There are dozens of E-commerce shopping cart platforms. Choosing the right E-commerce platform is extremely important. It should be chosen after careful evaluation across different parameters such as loading speed, features, and compatibility with payment gateways, web development, SEO-friendly text, digital marketing, and more.

7. Marketing your business

Marketing your E-commerce business online is one of the most prudent and cost-effective ways of bringing a larger target group to your online store. The biggest E-commerce businesses invest heavily in online marketing.

A combination of sponsored content, social media, pay-per-click ads, email marketing campaigns, giveaways and discounts, coupons and loyalty programs, and any other digital innovation is what you will need to be able to push through the clutter and reach your intended target audience. It is also imperative to monitor the digital campaigns that are being spent to understand, what is resonating with your audience.

Search engines seem to be the most popular choice for shoppers to stoke their retail aspirations. A global online shopper survey in February and March 2020 identified Amazon as the highest ranked portal with 52% usage traffic with over half of respondents stating that they looked to search engines of all kinds to provide shopping inspiration and alternatives.

Who is using E-commerce?

Most businesses fall under one of four categories. These categories are Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C), and Consumer-to-Business (C2B). All of these businesses represent a varied and evolving purchasing dynamic. It is not surprising at all to know that brands, corporations, and companies under each of these four broad-based business groups all rely heavily on one of several E-commerce business models.

This indicates that retailing online is the way of the future and adapting to an online selling model is the requirement of the present. As we mentioned earlier, smaller physical stores are struggling to create revenue due to a list of variables such as an aversion to physical proximity, the limitations of a physical retail space, higher rents and lease amounts, lesser sales due to things being made more easily available online and of course the most damaging of them all being the constricted reach to a limited physical target audience.

The E-commerce impact

With the steady and constantly evolutionary rise of social media, the E-commerce business industry is primed to take over how we make purchases and sales for the next century. It will also set benchmarks in innovation standards on how to best reach products and services to an intended target audience in the least amount of time, in the most efficient and cost-efficient manner, and with the least amount of contact possible. This is an industry that has been thrusted into the present only to rapidly and surely become the future of the retail concept in what we now have come to know as the "new" normal. In 2019, an estimated 1.92 billion people purchased goods or services online during the same year, E-commerce sales surpassed 3.5 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide. 

Data predicts that by the end of 2020, global E-commerce sales will reach $4.2 trillion and make up 16% of total retail sales. And these numbers are only predicted to go up as we continue into the ‘20s. 

However, the most fundamental impact that the E-commerce model will show on a damaged yet recovering global economy, is its direct impact on productivity and inflation. A relentless and continuous surge in E-commerce activity is bound to impact downward pressure on inflation through the phenomenon of an increase in market competition.

Even with limited capital, it has become very possible to set up an E-commerce business today. With consumers across the world relying increasingly relying on online shopping methods, it is estimated that 95% of purchases will be made online by 2040.  E-commerce would have truly opened doors of opportunity to countless entrepreneurs by then.

This should help you get a handle on what exactly needs to be done before you put your E- commerce ambitions into a fully functioning business reality.

AmareSol Global is a digital business consultancy creating innovative change through a team of talented designers, developers, and strategists creating digital experiences for brands and companies around the world. We are continuously fueling growth across constantly changing and advancing digital landscapes, by seeking and formulating newer and better ways to service clientele on a global scale across industries. Look up more about us at www.amaresolglobal.com.

 
 
 
AmareSol Global