From figuring out which niche to operate in to understanding whether your business needs to use Shopify or WooCommerce, there are many considerations to be made, even before starting out.
Discover your niche
E-commerce businesses have become increasingly popular in recent years. Before starting out, research the competition and check that the market space isn’t already totally saturated. Think about what solution your business solves and what other e-commerce businesses in the same sector are doing. You will need to know exactly what your business is offering including what products or services.
Are you selling physical products or will everything be digital? If they are physical products, where will you be sourcing them from? All of these decisions will help you develop a business model and how you want to charge your customers. For example, working on a subscription business model or offering single products.
Once you know what you want to sell and how, you will need to think about your operations, team and costs. Knowing how much you will be spending, and how much you will be earning, will help you prepare business forecasts and determine important information such as when your company might break even and when you can expect to start making a profit.
Decide how your business will be set up
Before setting up your business, you will need to decide on a name; this will also be the name in which you legally register your business. Your name should be something that is indicative of the nature of your business but something that is also unique and memorable.
Then, you will need to consider the legal structure of your business and what the requirements will be. For example, will you set up as a sole trader or as a limited company? Both have different legal implications and require a different process so you will need to know this before starting out. It will also affect the financial processes of your company. If you need any particular business permits or licenses, now is the time to organise these.
Create your website
When setting up an e-commerce business, there are many different platforms available for setting up your website. This is one of the most important decisions you will need to take when creating your e-commerce business so make sure to consider the different options available and why they might be good for your business.
For example, Shopify is one of the most well-known e-commerce websites and can work out to be fairly cost-effective, especially if you are following their basic subscription. However, the basic subscription of Shopify doesn’t include a full online store. You will need to weigh up the pros and cons of many different e-commerce platforms and decide which one might best suit your business needs.
Taking advantage of their services can also save you money in areas such as marketing and branding. Ensuring the best PDP optimization Shopify can give you can lead to a successful filled with colorful descriptions and user-friendly pages.
Market your e-commerce business
Once your platform is set up, and your products listed, you need to think about how people are going to find out about your business. When your website is up and running, you will want to attract as much traffic as possible to maximise your chances of a sale. There are many different marketing strategies you may choose to use.
For example, social media channels and Google ads can help you receive a greater volume of traffic and even reach a specific target audience.
You should also optimise your business website with SEO in mind to maximise your chances of organic traffic to the website from search engines. Local providers when it comes to SEO in particular can be very beneficial to any business and this is reflected in the competitiveness via Google search.
For example, searching for ‘SEO agency London’ will likely be the first port of call for any business requiring the necessary search engine marketing services in and around the London area. For businesses selling in or based in the city in question, having a local provider can make big difference; understanding the business’ needs and requirements that bit better.
Depending on the e-commerce platform you have chosen, there may even be specific online marketing tools included in your plan.