Shopping online has never been more popular and it’s fair to say there are great opportunities out there if you can plan an e-commerce venture properly. Also, with more and more people now choosing to buy online, rather than on the traditional high street, you could set up shop at a fraction of the price of buying or renting a real-world store, meaning reduced overheads and a significantly higher return on investment (ROI).
If you’re looking to start up your first e-com venture, or perhaps just add an extra shopping function to an existing site, below are some considerations you should bear in mind.
Find the Right Products for Your Venture
This should come as a no-brainer but, before you can sell things, you’re going to need products. Ideally, you should look for something unique that helps you stand out in the market. Today’s online retail landscape is highly competitive and having a unique selling point (USP) to your goods or services will end up making it much easier for you to stand out from your rivals.
Check the Competition and Be Sure to Write a Comprehensive Business Plan
In line with the point above about being unique, you should have a very clear idea of what the competition is going to be like for your particular product. Behemoth sites, like Amazon, will in many cases, offer rival products, but there’s little you can do about trying to take them on. Rather, look for other specialist retailers in your market niche and see how they run their business online.
Also, while you don’t want your business to be a carbon copy of your rivals, there’s no harm in ‘borrowing’ ideas that you think would work for your firm. For example, if you’re selling medical products, you could check a site like medical-supermarket.com for inspiration.
As part of this research, you should also write a comprehensive business plan, outlining how you intend to operate the company, including a detailed SWOT analysis.
Choose a Name for Your Firm and Pay for a Logo Design
The name of your firm is vitally important when it comes to online stores, so you should ideally choose something relatively short and catchy that embodies what you intend to sell. Remember that you should go for a name that is available as a URL. You should also think ahead and check if the same name is available across the main social channels you want to use, so you can keep brand cohesion.
Build the Site: Or Pay a Professional Designer
Today, it’s easier than ever to set up an online store at a fraction of the cost of even just a few years ago. With the ubiquitous rise of online web builder systems, you could have your store up and running, even in as little as a few hours.
However, just because you can do something, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. Sure, it’s super easy to set up a store using systems like Wix, but without adequate design and programming skills, you will likely quickly run into issues. Moreover, your site will never be on par with one that’s been professionally developed. As a rule, if you want the best results, you should hire a designer that will look after every aspect of your site production, including putting you live.
