Last Updated on Apr 15, 2020 by James W
The eCommerce business is thriving due to consumer demand and advancement in technology. It has become a driving force for numerous companies worldwide. Customers demand ease of use, convenience, and quickness of online shopping services. Therefore, businesses around the world are making necessary changes to optimize their online shops to meet such demands. Whether you are a start-up or an already established business, eCommerce is a great platform to grow and expand your business.
E-commerce can be classified as the process of conducting a commercial transaction electronically through the internet. Websites like Amazon, Aliexpress, and eBay are a few examples of eCommerce. It is a place where you can conduct an electronic transaction in exchange for buying a product. Having a successful eCommerce business is very difficult. If you have a product that you are selling online, it does not mean automatic success, as it will depend on the quality of your product. It is all about knowing what to do and when to do it. If you are a newcomer to the eCommerce business, then this article can be beneficial for you. Today, we are going to share with you the fundamentals of an eCommerce business, and what you need to do to have a successful online presence. These fundamental steps are listed as follows;
Choose Product And Market
It is pretty obvious, as the first step you need to take is to know what products you are willing to sell and to whom you want to sell those products. The good part about selling through an online store is that you can sell anything you want to anybody on this planet. However, that does not give you spontaneous success. For example, there is probably not a huge market out there that wants to buy things like novelty underwear. So a wise idea would be first to do some research on the product you wish to create and the people it will target. Having some first-hand knowledge about the market will do wonders, and you will be able to sell tons of your products.
It will be hugely useful if you know what people want. So, create a product accordingly and market it towards the right people and choose a reliable freight forwarder to ship your products to your customers.
Choose Platform
A platform is a software that you can use to create and manage your online store. After you have chosen your product and market, you need to select a platform to set up your online store. There are two types of platforms. They are an open-source platform and an out of the box platform.
An open-sourced platform gives you the ability to modify the code of the platform endlessly. It gives you great freedom to create and manage your online store whichever way you like. Usually, there is a team of developers that control your webstore and adjust it according to your liking.
In an out of the box platform, you don’t have to set up anything as every aspect of the platform is already handled for you. You can choose pre-built themes instead of designing your own. They are more cost-effective as compared to open-sourced platforms.
Design Website
The platform you choose will determine the amount of work you have to put into designing your website. An open-sourced platform will require you to team up with a web developer to create and operate a website. It can take a lot of time and can be very expensive, but that depends on what specifics you want your website to have. If you are going to create a fancy website, then it will likely charge you a lot of money.
If you choose an out of the box platform, you will just have to choose from the already provided themes, and design will allow you to get your website up and running earlier. When it comes to designing a website, the earlier, the better. However, you need to consider your brand image and the products you want to sell. Nobody is going to buy a 500 dollar product from a website that looks worth 100 dollars.
Method Of Payment And Fulfillment
To accept payments against your products, you need to have a method of payment that your customers are going to use. You can either accept credit/ debit cards or use online methods like a virtual wallet. You can also use cash on delivery option to receive payment from your customers. Keep in mind that if you use credit cards as a payment method, your business should be PCI compliant.
Once you have deiced on the payment method, you need to decide how you are going to deliver your product to the customers. There are two ways. You can either deliver the products yourself if you have a small business.
However, if you own a large business with a lot of online orders coming in every day, you need to hire a third-party logistics company to handle all the picking, packing, and shipping for you. Big retailers like home Depot use this kind of method of fulfillment.
Handling Returns
All online stores have to deal with returns at some point. You need to have a return policy as an online seller that is transparent so that your customer can have their minds at ease when they buy from you.
The better return and exchange experience you give to your customers, the better chance you have of these customers buying from you again. A study was conducted that showed 95 percent of people would most likely purchase again from an online store with a good return policy.
THE FINAL WORDS
Creating and managing an eCommerce business is not an easy thing to do. However, if you start small and you know the basic practices, you can easily turn your small online store into a big one. It is all about building a solid foundation and working your way up that foundation. Today, we have shared with you some fundamentals of eCommerce business. It would be wise that you consider them before you decide to start an eCommerce business.
