{"id":8238,"date":"2021-06-04T13:37:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T18:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstsiteguide.com\/?post_type=guide&p=8238"},"modified":"2024-01-07T11:14:04","modified_gmt":"2024-01-07T16:14:04","slug":"start-ecommerce-business","status":"publish","type":"guide","link":"https:\/\/firstsiteguide.com\/start-ecommerce-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Start an eCommerce Business in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"
The recent pandemic provided a boost that has accelerated the development of eCommerce by five years. It has never been a better time to start your business online<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to studies, 22% of all retail transactions<\/a> will take place on the internet by 2023. By 2024, eCommerce sales in the U.S. alone could surpass the $475 billion mark. If your business still isn\u2019t online, it\u2019s time to step up the pace and start your own eCommerce business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, starting an eCommerce business is still a huge challenge. It\u2019s important to understand the exact steps to ensure success in an overwhelmingly competitive business landscape like the digital business environment. <\/p>\n\n\n \n Fortunately, this detailed guide is going to share with you what it takes to build, launch, and run an eCommerce business with success in 2023.\u00a0<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\n\n Here are the five steps that will help you to start an eCommerce business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before you start selling your products or services<\/a>, you first need to choose the right eCommerce business model for your online business. Here are the five top models to consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most popular and widespread eCommerce business models is the business-to-consumer (B2C) model. This refers to selling your own products via an online store to your target audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a traditional retail eCommerce model. Your business sells services or products through your online store at retail prices. This model is one of the best for businesses that need short sales cycles, where they can quickly connect with customers, funnel them through the site to make a purchase, and move on to the next customer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the advantages of B2C include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dropshipping is an interesting business model in the eCommerce industry because it allows you to determine a specific set of products to sell on your site as an eCommerce retailer, while your order fulfillment and shipping process is handled and managed by your dropshipping supplier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As an eCommerce business model, dropshipping may not provide as high a level of control over your customer service and branding as B2C, but it will provide new, innovative, and customer-centric ways to test new services, explore new product ideas, and save on expenses and costs from storing inventory and shipping.<\/p>\n\n\n Print-on-demand products are products that contain your own design. There are many print-on-demand sites that allow businesses to create their own designs online, set up an online store\/shop, and get links to share their products on social media channels to promote their business without ever managing a shipment or owning inventory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is perfect for businesses that sell hand-drawn designs or simple text shirts. If your business revolves around selling print-on-demand products, here are few of the best print-on-demand sites for selling your products:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Businesses that choose to sell private label products via Amazon FBA<\/a> have one significant advantage: they transfer all responsibility for shipping and warehousing to Amazon<\/a>. FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon, and this eCommerce business model is an excellent way to promote your brand while cutting out the expense of shipping and warehousing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time you place an order for bulk goods, they go to an Amazon FBA center for storage, instead of being mailed to you. This business model involves a few fees, but there are also advantages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The contemporary handmade crafts community is huge today. It has grown a lot over the past few years, from just a tiny online niche to a full-scale marketplace, hosted on craft websites like Etsy<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sites like this one have helped to pave the way for handicraft artists and professionals to promote, and sell their products to a global audience online. Today, there are many more sites like Etsy, making this business model something to consider when thinking about starting an eCommerce business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The market size is rapidly expanding, gathering more and more professionals. While these makers were limited to local shops and flea markets in the past, that isn\u2019t the case anymore. Here are some websites to examine if you plan on selling handicraft products via online marketplaces:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you\u2019ve established your eCommerce business model, it\u2019s time to consider your product. This includes choosing the right product by doing niche market research<\/a> to discover the range of products that match your business niche and target audience. Let\u2019s examine how to pick a product and how to do niche market research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best way to choose a product is to research products to sell online. Your search should encompass one of two types of merchandise:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Niche products are designed to satisfy a very specific target audience. They are carefully selected lines of products or just one top-quality item that often comes in multiple versions. Niche products are an excellent way to develop a highly targeted marketing strategy that can result in high-profit margins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Commoditized products are usually popular, existing items that a seller can duplicate with a lower retail price, or a slight modification that will catch the eye of the consumer. When picking the right product, you need to think about your target audience, their real-life problems, and how your product can help them. <\/p>\n\n\n Here are some useful tips on how to pick the right product:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Performing market research essentially helps you to come up with a sound product idea. It also helps you determine the ideal buyer persona to better fine-tune the focus of your marketing strategies. Even though many think that market research is tedious, boring, and time-consuming, there are many fantastic market research tools<\/a> that can make this process fun to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n More importantly, you don\u2019t need to additionally stretch your budget by hiring a specialist to perform your research for you. Here are a couple of ways to conduct targeted market research on a specific audience for your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the best ways to gather valuable intel about your consumers is to conduct customer surveys<\/a>. Surveys also provide access to a wide range of audiences on social media and offer one of the fastest ways to build an email list of contacts. <\/p>\n\n\n Create customer surveys based on the following demographic topics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If it\u2019s possible, organize Zoom or phone interviews by using the contacts of your survey participants. If you\u2019re asking specific questions, one-on-one interviews are the way to go. Use email to distribute your questions to your participants but do so a few days before you interview them to give them time to prepare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use Skype or Zoom to create focus groups that will involve your ideal consumers. Focus groups are an excellent way to create buyer personas based on the information that you\u2019ve gathered from your groups, interviews, and surveys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that you have the foundation for your business established, it\u2019s time to move into the stage of setting up your eCommerce business. This is where we\u2019ll cover the steps that include naming your business and brand, building your online store, choosing the correct payment methods, and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The name of your eCommerce business is crucial to your success. If it\u2019s something too complicated or hard to remember, you won\u2019t be seeing much traffic on your website. You can name your business by focusing on making your domain name catchy<\/a> and short rather than overly descriptive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many businesses make a mistake by choosing names that are too long and complicated to remember. Once you\u2019ve decided on the name of your business\/domain, you\u2019ll need to register it<\/a>. Fortunately for you, there are an array of services that you can use to do this. <\/p>\n\n\n In the world of the internet, Visual branding is a science that would require its own article, but we\u2019ll offer a short summary here. It\u2019s important to have a logo and branding to make your business memorable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you have a brand, you can start building brand presence and awareness to increase your company\u2019s visibility online and establish an authoritative reputation for your company. Your logo plays a crucial role here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Creating your logo<\/a> and branding materials requires the same font and complementary branding colors across your sales channels. You can go DIY on your logo if you wish, but we recommend that you outsource your logo to a freelance designer to get the most professional result that your money can buy. <\/p>\n\n\n When it comes to branding your business, here are some key things to keep in mind:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you\u2019re thinking about your logo, think about brands like McDonald\u2019s, Nike, Coca-Cola, or BMW. These are all simple logos but highly memorable ones due to their distinctive colors and other unique elements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you have a logo that you\u2019re satisfied with, match its design with a complementary color scheme to impact the rest of your visual brand materials, including your ads, marketing emails, packaging materials, and website design<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you have the right product, business model, and logo ready, it\u2019s time to start setting up your eCommerce business by building your online store. Start with building your website<\/a>. Most online wholesalers and retailers choose sales as a service (SaaS) platforms because they provide both eCommerce options and website-building tools<\/a>, and they are easy to use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you decide to go with the SaaS option, there are quite a few providers out there. We recommend that you go with the one that offers a free trial to allow you to test their services and features. <\/p>\n\n\n Before you decide on your eCommerce platform, here are some of the essential features that your solution should have:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the best platforms to consider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s take a look at the requirements for building your online store for the business models that we mentioned earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you plan on selling your own products via an online store (B2C business model), here are some quick steps that will show you how to start your own online store:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If dropshipping via an online store is more up your business alley, here are the steps to help you set up your dropshipping online store:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you plan on starting an eCommerce business to sell print-on-demand products, platforms like Shopify allow you to do this in a few easy steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amazon FBA allows you to sell private label products as a brand owner. You can either source goods to sell under a private label or manufacture your own goods. Here\u2019s how to start selling on Amazon<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Selling handicraft products is an excellent business model that doesn\u2019t require you to build an online store. Instead, there are marketplaces like Alibaba<\/a> and eBay<\/a> that allow you to use their selling services to promote, market, and sell your handicraft products to your target audience all over the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are the steps to start selling:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the majority of businesses prefer Shopify over other platforms for creating their online store, here is how to set up an eCommerce store with Shopify<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow to Start an eCommerce Business in 5 Easy Steps<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
Step #1: Different eCommerce business models<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Selling your own products via an online store<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Dropshipping via an online store<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Selling print-on-demand products<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Selling private label products via Amazon FBA<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Selling handicraft products via marketplaces<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Step #2: Picking a product and doing niche market research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How to choose a product<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
How to do market research <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Customer surveys<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n
Interview consumers<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Create focus groups<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Step #3: Setting up your eCommerce business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Naming your eCommerce business<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Creating a logo and branding materials<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Building your online store<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
B2C online store<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Dropshipping via an online store<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Selling print-on-demand products<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Amazon FBA<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Selling handicraft products via marketplaces<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
How to set up your online store with Shopify<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n