If you are lacking in motivation with your 9-5 job and would like to launch your own e-commerce business, this article was written with you in mind. Many people have already made the transition to becoming their own boss by selling products online, and with that in mind, here are a few tips to help you set up your very own shopping cart website.
- The Product – You need to do a lot of market research with any product you are thinking of selling online, ensuring there is an adequate demand, while quality should be a priority. If you have special knowledge of a line of products, this will help you make informed decisions and time should be spent on this, as getting it wrong would be a costly mistake.
- Web Design – Of course, your website is very much your shop window and it should therefore be of a professional design, with good product images and accurate descriptions. A single company can design, build, host and maintain your website and unless you happen to be very IT competent, you should outsource all your web needs.
- Digital Nomad – As you are running an online business, you can base yourself anywhere in the world, running your enterprise from Novotel in Bangkok is perfectly feasible, indeed, many young entrepreneurs live and work in exotic countries like Thailand, where the cost of living is low. This is one of the benefits of running an e-commerce business; all you need is your laptop and a stable Internet connection and you are good to go.
- Digital Marketing – Once you have your e-commerce platform online ready for trading, you need to partner up with a leading SEO agency, preferably one with experience helping online start-ups. The digital marketing agency would optimise your website for Google searches, and with millions of consumers using search engines to source products, you simply can’t afford to be without search engine optimisation services. Click here for more information on setting up a successful business, which is a must-read for every entrepreneur.
- Logistics – When a customer orders an item, the clock is ticking and today’s online shopper expects rapid delivery, which means you need to hook up with a local third-party logistics (3PL) provider. All you need to do is deliver your products and packaging to your 3PL partner and forward orders as they come in, your logistics provider will do the rest, and they would have associations with worldwide carriers and can therefore deliver to any location.
- Payment Gateways – Of course, you will need several payment gateways to give customers a choice, with major credit cards, direct bank transfer and PayPal, plus you should think about creating a Bitcoin wallet and offering to accept this digital currency, which is the future. These are quite easy to set up and everything can be arranged online, then when you receive and order, the funds will be transferred to your account.
Another aspect of managing an e-commerce website is cyber-security, which can be handled by your web-hosting provider. If you have done your homework and have a good digital marketing plan, there’s every reason to expect a degree of success, which you can build on to create a sustainable business that will support you in the future.