Starting an ecommerce business is a great way to build a profitable online business from the comfort of your own home. But it's not as simple as just having an idea, creating a website and hoping for the best. To be successful in this competitive industry, you need to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way, track your progress and measure your performance against industry standards every step of the way.
How to Start an Ecommerce Business Easily
Step 1: Brainstorm Ecommerce Business Ideas
You may find it difficult to come up with ideas for your ecommerce business. If that’s the case, start by brainstorming some broad categories of products that you can sell online. For example, if you want to sell shoes online, you could try selling sandals or sneakers; if instead you want to sell jewelry online, try selling earrings or necklaces. You can then take these top-level categories and drill down further into subcategories: “women’s shoes” becomes “dresses” becomes “dress shoes” which becomes “heels for weddings.”
After brainstorming a few different ways in which an idea could be profitable or help others (e.g., making their lives easier), ask yourself whether there are any trends happening right now in those industries that might make them more attractive than they were before?
Step 2: Conduct Market Research
Market research is the process of gathering information about an existing or potential market. You may think that you know exactly what your customers want, but it's always best to conduct market research in order to confirm this hypothesis—or find out if your idea doesn't meet the needs of your ideal audience.
The importance of conducting market research cannot be overstated. Before spending any time or money on developing a product or service, take a step back and ask yourself: what do my customers want? How can I provide it? What features would they like to see in my ecommerce store? If you don't know these answers yet, then the next step is conducting some basic market research so that you can figure them out before moving ahead with developing your site.
Step 3: Find Your Niche and Set Your Goals
- Select a niche.
- Set your goals.
- Define your target audience.
- Decide on price point and product/service offerings (just one, or several?).
- Develop a brand identity for yourself, including logo design and color scheme. Think about how you'll market yourself to customers—what kind of personality do you want to convey? Do you have a particular style or aesthetic that's important to the success of this business? What colors do they use in their advertisements? What fonts are they using in their logos? Are there any trends that can be incorporated into the design process without breaking the bank?
Step 4: Choose the Right Ecommerce Platform for Your Business
Here are some questions to ask yourself when choosing an ecommerce platform:
- How many products do I want to sell?
- Is there a marketplace I can list my products on?
- Can it be integrated with my website or blog?
- Can I customize the look and feel of the store?
In addition to these questions, make sure you have a good idea of how much money you're willing to spend on your platform. The cost of a platform can vary dramatically depending on what features it offers, so make sure you choose one that fits within your budget. Shopify has been recommended as one of the best and easiest ways to start your online store.
Step 5: Set Up Your Online Store
Now that you've got your products ready, you're going to need a place to sell them. There are many different ways to host an online store, and the best choice for your business depends on a number of factors.
- Choose the right ecommerce platform: Some platforms offer more features than others, so make sure you know what you need before making a decision. If you're not sure which one is best for your business, consider using Shopify Plus or BigCommerce Enterprise—they both offer scalable solutions that can grow with your company as it grows in size and revenue.
- Choose a payment method: The payment gateway is the software provider that processes payments on behalf of merchants like yourself; these include PayPal, Stripe and Square Cash App (among others). It's important to research this part carefully; some gateways are more expensive than others depending on how much volume they handle per month—but keep in mind that cheaper doesn't always mean better. You'll need someone who has experience working with e-commerce businesses like yours if they want their service fees waived altogether! A good rule of thumb here is “you get what you pay for.”
Step 6: Choose a Payment Method for Your Ecommerce Business
In this step, you should choose a payment method to accept payments from customers. There are several options like PayPal, Stripe, Square and etc. You can also use Weebly or Shopify as your ecommerce platform.
There are many platforms available in the market including Wix, Bigcommerce and Magento that help you to create an online store. They have many templates for creating your website which you can customize as per your requirement. You will get all necessary tools for creating your online store with these platforms such as SEO optimization feature, inventory management system and customer support services along with free domain name registration on signup so that you don’t need any technical knowledge while starting an e-commerce business using any of these platforms
Step 7: Set Up a Shipping Solution for Your Online Store
This is one of the most important steps in starting an ecommerce store. Setting up a shipping solution will allow you to sell your products, but it also has other important benefits such as customer service and order tracking. These solutions can be as simple or complex as you need them to be.
There are many options for setting up a shipping solution for your online store:
- In-house shipping software – This option requires that you set up the software yourself and install it on your website server. You will have complete control over the system, but it can be difficult to maintain and manage.
- Third-party solutions – There are many third-party solutions available from companies like Shopify who specialize in providing ecommerce tools for businesses just like yours! The cost of these services will vary depending on which features they offer and how much traffic they expect from their customers at any given time (for example high demand during holidays).
Step 8: Create Content for Your Ecommerce Website
After you've created your website and set up your ecommerce store, you'll want to add content for your visitors. At this point, it's important to remember that content is the key element of any successful online business. If you're serious about growing an ecommerce business, then you need to invest in quality content—it's one of the most important aspects of online marketing and can make or break your business.
If you have no idea where to start with creating content for an ecommerce site, here are some tips:
- Create well-written articles that provide useful information related to what sells on your site. For example, if you have an eco-friendly t-shirt company, write articles on how people can help save the planet through fashion choices (this will also help search engine optimization). Also include things like social media share buttons so readers can easily share what they find interesting with their friends!
- Post new entries frequently (at least weekly) because this will increase exposure while keeping visitors engaged by providing fresh material all along with each update posted online every day consistently throughout each week [date]…
Step 9: Market Your Online Business
The ninth step in starting an ecommerce business is to market your online store. Marketing is a process, not an event. It's not just advertising, it's not just a matter of money and it's not just about time either.
- Product quality: Ensure that the product you're selling has high value for the price customers are paying for it
- Customer service: Customer service is about making sure that customers can easily communicate with you if they have any questions or concerns about your products or services. This includes having an FAQ page, plus toll-free numbers and email addresses where people can get in touch with you easily and quickly.
Step 10: Track and Analyze Data to See What's Working (And What Isn't)
In order to grow your business, you have to know what's working and what isn't. To do that, you need to track and analyze your data.
This can be done in a number of ways:
- Use analytics tools like Google Analytics or Kissmetrics to see how many visitors come to your website, how long they stay there and which pages they visit. You'll also want to pay attention to conversion rates (the percentage of people who take a specific action on your website) and customer lifetime value (a measure of how much money a customer spends with you over time).
- Look at product-specific metrics such as conversion rate from free trial signup form clicks or from paid search advertising clicks. You might also want to keep an eye on things like average cart size – this shows how much people are spending per checkout session (i.e., their total purchases divided by number of orders).
Conclusion
And there you have it! You now know how to start an ecommerce business from scratch.