The world has truly embraced e-commerce as a replacement for traditional retail outlets.
With the global market cap of $5.5 trillion, one can only imagine the returns an online store offers to entrepreneurs!
From brainstorming the perfect online marketing strategy to creating your own virtual office, let us reveal 5 things to do before starting your online store!
1. Product Hunting
While an online store can sell multiple items, starting with one or a couple of products is essential. By choosing to sell only a few items, you can invest an amount you can afford to lose.
Additionally, focusing on a few products helps you sell more volume and generate a higher revenue before venturing into newer products.
Here’s a list that outlines how to hunt for a product that sells itself!
- Use Google Trends to determine what product sells in all seasons. It helps you discover products that will generate sales all year long and improve inventory turnover.
- Visit Amazon and search for hot-selling items that are often out of stock. This will help you find the products you can sell quickly for an immediate return on investment.
- You can also rely on software, such as Helium 10, to hunt for a product that has the highest margins.
Now that we have mentioned margins, let us explain what margins mean and why they are important.
Each product that you sell will have costs associated with it. The difference between your cost price and selling price is the profit you take home with you.
So, you must find a product with a high margin – lowest possible cost and highest selling price.
2. Planning Ahead
After determining what product or set of products you will sell, it is important to write down what goals you want to achieve and how you want to achieve them.
Our following checklist will assist you in deciding what to plan for!
- The first thing to decide is if you would manufacture the selling items yourself or source them.
For starters, finding a good and reliable wholesaler or source is ideal. Later into the future, one can always set up a manufacturing unit.
- Second, you must decide if you will stick with your online store or flip the store. Flipping an asset means selling your asset.
3. Deciding Store Creation
How your online store turns out depends on its built platform.
Amazon
If you wish to test waters and learn the basics of selling, creating a seller’s account on Amazon could be an easy and affordable way to experiment.
Squarespace
A dedicated website builder like Squarespace offers you a beautiful layout with various professional functions and integrated tools.
Shopify
Suppose you want an authentic online store experience and wish the same for your site visitors. In that case, you must consider Shopify and its dedicated services.
WordPress
For WordPress enthusiasts, nothing could be better than making a website from scratch. Not only is WordPress super easy to work with, but it’s also super affordable.
With a few plugins, you can have a functional and aesthetic online store in no time.
4. Picking A Domain Name
A domain name is your unique identifier. The more unique it is, the more chances of success. But more importantly, your site visitors can easily find you.
Picking an appropriate domain name is important. It should reflect the kind of business you are into and be easy to search for.
5. Planing A Marketing Strategy
An effective marketing strategy not only generates sales but sets your online store up for stellar growth.
See how successful E-commerce businesses go about their marketing to build a holistic and well-thought marketing plan.
From Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Pay Per Click (PPC) and social media marketing, there are various marketing strategies that you can mix and match and find the consumer funnel that works the best for you.
Conclusion
An online store unlocks a world of unlimited possibilities for you.
Yes, the process can be pretty complex at times, we hope our guide will provide a starting point!
Start planning to execute your dreams of opening an online store today!
