What are the top benefits of a successful eCommerce business? There are lots of them. Making your business accessible to customers round the clock, and getting access to the global market are just a couple of them. These benefits also beam on why eCommerce business is on the lips of virtually everyone today. And the best part is starting a profitable online business without putting a hole in your pockets is achievable with the right resources.
Recent statistics from Statista show that the number of retail website visits worldwide hit 22 billion in June 2020 from 16 billion in January. With eCommerce revenues projected to go north of 5 trillion dollars earlier in 2022, it is understandable why virtually everyone is eager to join the train and start an eCommerce business.
However, there is more to starting a successful eCommerce business than meets the eye. If you thought it starts and ends with you putting up a website and listing your products, you thought wrong. Starting any online business (regardless of the industry or niche you are in) requires ample planning and sometimes consultation with expert eCommerce service providers.
Here are factors to consider while planning a successful eCommerce business
What is your niche?
Top on the list of factors to consider before starting a successful eCommerce business is researching the niche you want to get into. This is where you undertake market research with the intention of getting a clear-cut idea of the size of the market (your target audience), the demand for what you wish to sell, competition and growth potentials.
Equipped with this information, you would be able to make adequate plans on your market entry and marketing strategy campaign — you will also have an idea of how much capital you need to get started. Consulting with professional eCommerce service providers like sellvia can help you with this step.
Get a professional website up and running
Having researched your target market and laying out your marketing strategy, you can now shift your focus to setting up a professional eCommerce business website. Of course, there is no eCommerce business without a website.
However, while you are at it, there are factors you should consider — getting a domain name, finding the right hosting plan and getting professional and competent hands to design your website. Combined, all of these factors will help you get a website that is not only appealing to your customers but also positions your business as an authority. How?
Your website is usually the first point of contact with clients, and that is where they will get the first impression about your brand. And since one cannot get a second chance to make a first impression, you can understand why you should take your eCommerce website design seriously.
What type of eCommerce business are you looking at?
Not many people know this, but the eCommerce space is vast, and there are ideas endless business ideas you can pursue. In addition to dropshipping, retail, wholesale, and services (all of which are popular eCommerce businesses), you can also explore other opportunities in direct to consumers (D2C) models. This includes subscriptions (services with recurring purchases), digital products, and crowdfunding — where you raise startup capital from willing customers and ship the product when it’s created.
Having mentioned direct to consumer (D2C) business models, other eCommerce business models you can consider include:
- Business to Consumer (B2C) models
- Business to Business (B2B) models
- Consumer to Consumer (C2C) business models
- Consumer to Business (C2B) eCommerce business models
Create a streamlined payment method
The last thing you want is the customer getting frustrated and leaving your online store without completing the payment process. While there are lots of reasons why a customer would “abandon their cart” or refuse to check out their products, one of the most common reasons is unnecessarily complicated payment methods.
Your job as a business owner operating in the online space is to make the user journey incredibly easy to follow through. You should always seek ingenious ways to reduce or eliminate whatever resistances that will hinder customers from taking the desired action on your website — like making payments for products and services or subscriptions.
Here are statistics to paint a clear picture and drive the point home. Research findings by Baymard show that 24% of US customers didn’t check out or complete a payment because they had to create an account. The report also showed that 18% of abandoned carts are because of complicated payment processes.
Rounding off
Having checked all of these on your checklist of factors to consider when starting a successful eCommerce business, remember to invest in robust and effective tracking and analytics system. This helps you keep tabs on your customers’ experience and how they are interacting with your business. Last but not least, leverage omnichannel marketing to expand your business reach and ramp up your profit margin.
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