Do you want to start an e-commerce business? If your answer is yes, then you've come to the right place. In this article, we'll guide you from scratch to e-commerce professionalism. Are you ready?
Get your coffee and focus. This is your first step toward making your dream e-commerce business a reality.
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Why start an e-commerce business?
Let's start with the "why." There are many reasons why you should start e-commerce now, most notably:
1. Ease of Starting Up: You can now start an e-commerce business in just a few hours without any difficult requirements at all.
2. Low Start-Up Cost: You can start an e-commerce business with simple costs that you can easily manage.
3. People are used to shopping online: Nowadays, everyone is accustomed to buying anything and everything from online stores, unlike before. In fact, demand for online stores is increasing at a high rate.
4. There's still room for you: You may think that the e-commerce field has become very crowded and that there are dozens or hundreds of stores in every field, but the truth is that this is absolutely not true.
5. Continuous profit: You can profit from e-commerce while you sleep, on vacation, or traveling abroad. E-commerce equals great freedom in terms of profit.
6. You are your own boss: You can work whenever you want, from wherever you want, without a manager controlling you.
7. You learn many important skills (especially digital ones): During your journey to building your online store, you will be able to learn many skills that will benefit you and strengthen your capabilities in the job market.
What do you need to start an e-commerce business?
In fact, nothing. You just need to have the right idea, the right mindset for learning and development, and the ability to correct mistakes and improve. This is the most important thing you need.
It may also be helpful to have capital at the beginning, but if you don't have any, there are other methods that may suit you at very low costs to help you get started.
In general, whether in life or at work, the most important qualities you can possess are desire, perseverance, and learning. If you possess these three, you will succeed in anything you do.
Steps to Open an E-Commerce Project
In this part of the article, we will present the 8 practical steps you need to open a successful e-commerce project.
Focus carefully, grab a pen and paper, and record all notes and responses related to each of the following 8 points:
1. Find the Right Business Model
A successful project = a successful business model, and this also applies to an e-commerce project.
The business model is the foundation of the entire process, and it is based on it that all the details and the following 8 points are determined.
Among the most popular business models that can be followed in the world of business and commerce are:
1. The B2B (Business to Business) model: In this model, sales are made from one company to another. It involves selling services and goods directly between companies, in large quantities, and often on a regular basis.
2. B2C (Business to Consumer) Model: This is the most common model in any e-commerce project. It involves selling products and services from companies or stores directly to individuals or consumers.
3. C2C (Consumer to Consumer) Model: This is a model in which users sell products to each other through an intermediary platform such as Etsy or eBay.
4. C2B (Consumer to Business) Model: This is a rare and uncommon model in which users offer services to companies. It is often associated with freelancing on sites such as Upwork, Freelancer, and others.
2. Choose Your Product
After you've chosen your store's business model and defined most of your project's features, you now need to choose the products you'll sell.
It's likely that since you've opened this article, you have one or more products you're considering selling. However, before making that decision, you'll need to consider a few factors.
These factors will ensure you don't encounter any problems in the future:
1. The product has an audience: Coming up with a new and innovative product idea is great, but it's often not practical. Unlike a product that already has an audience who knows about it and buys it regularly, the risk and cost will be much higher.
2. The product is non-seasonal: You need to ensure you can sell the product year-round, not just for a short period during a special occasion, event, movie, or trend. The product you're looking for is one that is in constant demand.
3. The product fits your budget: Whatever product you sell, you'll need to provide it in large quantities, which may not fit your budget at first. So, carefully consider your budget. For example, don't open a store for expensive iPhones when you can barely afford two or three.
4. The product is within your scope of expertise: This point isn't as essential as the previous points, but it significantly increases the likelihood of your online store's success. The closer you are to your target market, the better you'll know how to attract their customers.
3. Find a Source for Your Product
In most cases, you'll need a supplier. Whether you're offering a product or service, you'll need someone to supply it in large quantities.
You'll either import goods from a supplier like those on Alibaba, for example, or if you're offering a service or digital product, freelancers will be your suppliers.
After identifying a number of good, reliable suppliers, you'll need to find out their prices and shipping methods, and request a sample to ensure the quality of their offerings.
Then choose the one that best suits you. Of course, you'll use the same criteria with freelancers if you're offering a service or digital product.
There are some business models that don't require all of these steps, such as dropshipping, where you recruit customers and take a commission while the supplier or other party handles all the work.
The final option is to manufacture your own products. This model is very effective for situations like handicrafts.
4. Market, Competitor, and Target Audience Research
Market research and competitor analysis are among the most important factors for the success of any e-commerce project, or any project in general. They are crucial steps that should not be skipped.
We must clarify one important point at the outset: the presence of a highly competitive market does not mean you are lagging behind or that you will not be able to sell in it. Rather, it means that this market already has a large audience from which you can generate significant profits if you take the right steps.
So, don't let the market and the intense competition prevent you from starting in a specific field and turning to another market with less competition.
At the same time, don't start in markets dominated by large brands, as you are likely not at that level yet when you are just starting out.
After you choose the product you will sell, you will naturally be aware of the groups that consume it most, whether by age, social class, or other.
Based on this, you will determine all the details of the product, from its appearance and price to its marketing methods and platforms, which we will discuss in the following points.
At this stage, you also study your main competitors who sell the same or similar products, with the goal of learning from them and then outperforming them by distinguishing yourself from them.
This distinction can be the result of analyzing competitors' products, marketing, shipping and payment methods, or even price, among other competitive points.
Finally, don't forget to accurately define your target customer, as any mistake in this will have very serious consequences for your project.
5. Legal and Tax Procedures
Don't listen to any advice that advises you to circumvent the law. Sooner or later, you will get into major trouble because of this. This is the result of the experience of many who thought they were smart and tried to circumvent the law.
Know all the necessary legal and tax details in your country, even if you need to hire a lawyer or legal expert.
Set aside time to research all the procedures you need to take, and start them one by one, in conjunction with the rest of the steps. You'll thank me later.
6. Determine the Details of Your E-Commerce Project
There are crucial details for any e-commerce project, and you'll need to define them from the outset to ensure your success and achieve the best results and sales without experiencing initial periods of failure and confusion. These details are:
a) Payment Methods
One of the most important details is the payment methods and means, as there are many payment methods that vary depending on the product, customer, and country.
Therefore, you must think carefully and put yourself in the shoes of your target customer to be able to choose the appropriate payment methods.
Also, one of the most important details is the shipping and delivery methods. While everything may be correct and accurate, relying on the wrong shipping method could ruin the entire project.
b) Pricing and Profit Margin
Pricing always comes first when considering opening an e-commerce project, and it's a major detail that can make or break any e-commerce project.
Although it may seem a little difficult at first, it's actually not that difficult. All you have to do is look at your competitors' prices and set your prices within their range, ensuring you achieve a reasonable profit margin.
Be careful here to avoid the common beginner's mistake of lowering prices to attract customers, as this often doesn't yield good results at all.
Try to play on all other competitive points and make price your last card, as this is extremely risky.
C) Marketing Methods
Marketing is one of the most important factors in the overall sales process, whether traditionally or online, so you should make it a top priority when selling.
There are many ways to market your online store, each varying in cost and target audience. You can use messages, email, social media, Google Ads, or even influencer marketing.
We will shortly devote a full step to marketing, covering all the details you need to know.
d) Market Gaps
One of the most important things you need to study is your market's weaknesses and the aspects that can make you stand out from other stores in the eyes of customers and generate significant purchases.
These gaps could be in pricing, shipping methods, marketing tools, or even difficulties with communication and returns, among other things.
Here, you need to exploit your competitors' gaps and use them in your marketing, as we discussed in the section on market and competitor research, to gain an advantage over them.
e) Name and Brand
When I hear the word e-commerce, the names of specific stores come to mind. I suspect the same thing happens to you or anyone who shops online.
The secret to the entrenchment of these businesses—small or large—in our minds is their strong brand.
That's what you need to do, too. You need to choose an attractive name for your store, along with designs that align with what's sold in the store and the preferences of the audience using it, and a professional and engaging user experience.
However, if your budget doesn't allow you to do this perfectly, don't let that prevent you from continuing to build the store and then developing this aspect in the future.
7. Online Store Design
In continuation of the previous points, you now need to take another step before starting to sell and receive profits: designing the store.
The appearance of your store is the interface people see before looking at the products, and it's the first impression of your brand that is built upon it, so don't neglect it under any circumstances.
As we mentioned before, the store's design will primarily revolve around the target audience. Consider the age group, product style, brand, and most competitors' designs, and try to come up with the most appropriate design.
In fact, contrary to everything we mentioned before, this is one of the easiest and quickest steps you can take. You won't necessarily need to hire a design expert to create the website for you.
In fact, there are many platforms that offer the ability to create a store with drag-and-drop and without any prior experience, such as Shopify.
Of course, if you have a large capital and want to hire an expert to design a WordPress website, this option is still available to you, and you'll find many of them on freelance sites like Fiverr and others.
And if you've decided to sell on a platform like Amazon, Noon, or others, you don't need to consider this point at all.
8. Start Marketing
Now that your store is ready, you can work on attracting customers and generating profits. However, to do this, you must market it.
No matter what you choose in the previous steps, you will need strong digital marketing to achieve the results you hope for. There are many marketing channels and methods you can choose from.
Each method and channel has its own advantages, disadvantages, and costs. You choose between them based on the nature of your project. These are:
1. Social Media: Simply being present on social media increases the likelihood of potential customers seeing you, which contributes to increasing your sales.
2. Influencer Marketing: This is one of the best marketing methods for e-commerce, as it is a guaranteed way to attract customers. You target them through someone whose opinions and choices they trust. However, one of the drawbacks of this method is that its price can be high compared to other methods.
3. Email Marketing: This is a highly effective method, especially for encouraging customers who have already purchased to purchase again by constantly sending them the latest news and offers via email. It's a very easy method to implement, and there are many tools for it, such as MailChimp.
4. Search Engine Optimization: SEO is one of the best and most effective ways to succeed in e-commerce, by using the right keywords that potential customers are searching for.
The goal is to appear on the first page of their search results. You'll find plenty of information and articles about SEO on Al-Rabhun.
5. Paid Advertising: This is one of the most classic methods of selling online, and is often used by stores of all sizes. It's simply a matter of running a paid ad on Google or any social media site to increase your product's visibility to users.
Conclusion
Starting an e-commerce business is much easier than you might imagine and doesn't require the complicated steps many people imagine. If you follow the right steps, you can launch your store in a few days at most.
In this article, we'll help you launch your project and provide you with all the information and steps you'll need to make it a success.
At the end of the article, we hope you've benefited and enjoyed it. If you have any questions, please ask us in the comments below, and we'll respond as soon as possible.