Begin Your Ecommerce Journey Now!

You will find many startups and businesses diving into the e-commerce sector to establish a presence and expanding operations in the industry. Most companies, particularly retailers aspiring for growth, strongly trust the power of e-commerce. With the pandemic taking over, we all can agree that life as we know it has changed forever. 

Our survival mostly depends on a good internet connection that allows us to connect to the outside world without leaving our house. And this is where the e-commerce industry found a golden opportunity to grow. With consumers prioritizing ease, convenience, and quality while online shopping, retailers are latching onto opportunities to meet these requirements. 

Most retailers look up to Amazon and eBay when creating a web store mainly because these two platforms offer top-tier solutions to basic e-commerce problems. So, when you’re creating a brand yourself, you must lay down the foundation first. Identify the values, mission, and goals of your brand and go from there. The rest, you will learn about in this brief guide. 

Let’s talk about the basics of e-commerce you should know before you take charge!

Identify your product

This is a huge challenge for many entrepreneurs out there. Finding the right product in today’s saturated market is difficult than ever. You will find that most of your ideas are already being marketed, so coming up with an idea that generates enough profit for your brand is tough. So, what do you do? There are several ways to find the right product to sell. 

Every problem comes with a solution. You just have to identify that problem. Find a pain point most customers face and solve it. If that doesn’t work, you can always look upon existing products and customer reviews on them, study different consumer hobbies and investments, or better yet – sell your passion. Find products of your interest, take inspiration, and cater to a much more particular problem that aligns with your passion. 

Understand that product validation is the first step in making a profit. Target a niche market and test the product first before making a higher investment. Gather customer feedback and improve your product accordingly. 

Select your Target Market

Without knowing who your target market is, you will never learn how to successfully market a product. Who is your campaign targeting? Who is this product or service designed for? Your target market decides a lot of things for you – particularly the type of audience you will be marketing the product to. 

Once you’ve identified your target market, only then can you come up with brilliant marketing strategies. The point of a webstore is to sell the product to people who want it. It’s also important to remember that you cannot target everyone as a brand – it’s financially impossible. 

By being specific, you can compete easily against big brands. Focus on delivering a message that resonates with a specific group of people. It’s an affordable, effective and efficient way of attracting customers. If possible, try breaking down your target market further into several niches.

Select your e-commerce platform

As soon as you’ve identified your product and target market, the next step is to figure out where you’re going to sell the product. You will find multiple software out there offering you to create your own customized webstore. The options you have are plenty! You can enjoy designing your webstore through open-source platforms like Magento, WooCommerce, and more or you could sign up on self-hosted platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, etc. if you want to get the store up and running quickly.

If you’re someone who likes having creative control over design and code of your webstore, go for open source solutions. Enjoy complete control by hiring your own team to design, code, and manage your webstore for you!

On the other hand, out-of-the-box solutions are perfect for those who wish to build a website quickly. You don’t have to do much except choosing the theme and customizing accordingly. You’ll have a webstore ready to run in no time! 

The type of platform you choose has a direct impact on maintenance, management and service of the website. If you have money to spend, going for an open-source solution is a good idea, however, if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, opting for self-hosted solutions is the way to go

Design your Web Store

Now that you’ve finally selected the platform, you need to start designing your webstore. If you’ve chosen the open-source route, your team of designers and developers will get the job done in no time, with all the creative freedom they have. However, you cannot expect your webstore to be up and running quickly because writing and customizing code take time. 

But if you’ve gone with a self-hosted platform, sit back, relax and watch your webstore get ready in no time. With their features, tools, and themes, building a webstore becomes 10 times easier. 

No matter which platform you go for, there are 3 things you must focus on to create a reliable webstore:

• Interface 
• Navigation
• Brand image

You have to make sure your website is interactive, attractive yet easy to use, and aligned with your brand’s vision. 

Choose a Payment Mode

When you decide on setting up an e-commerce store, choosing a payment mode is an integral part of it. To make your website a flexible pick for your users, it’s important to offer customers more than one type of payment mode. Payment solutions allow you to accept transactions, so no matter which payment solution you offer, unless it complies with the CI standards, your store cannot guarantee reliable transactions. 

Payment solutions like Stripe, PayPal, Google Wallet, and Amazon Payments are some of the most reliable ones out there. However, we recommend you to do your own research on payment modes you can afford and offer your customers. 

It’s important to stay connected with your customers in case of any issues, difficulties, or queries they might have. With a super-fast internet like Windstream Kinetic, you never have to worry about losing an opportunity ever again. Promise excellent customer service by always being available and make the most out of your e-commerce journey. 

Wrapping it up

Building an e-commerce store from scratch is never easy. It takes time, dedication, risk, and a lot of money. Understanding these basics firsthand will help you set foot on your e-commerce journey with a clear vision in mind.