It’s easy to see why starting an online business is so appealing to so many people; there is certainly much to gain from running a successful e-commerce business. Establishing your very own online retail store and then watching it grow is rewarding, and of course, if successful the financial benefits can be great too. For some people, the prospect of being able to work at home, on pretty much their own terms is a real incentive to go it alone and start an e-commerce business. However, that doesn’t mean that setting up a successful online retail store is easy to achieve.

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If you’re daydreaming of starting out on your own and picture yourself sat tapping away on the laptop at your kitchen table successfully running a business while still in your PJs, then you’ll need to get stuck into some planning before you get started.

So, you’re thinking about launching an e-commerce business but not sure where to start? Here are some pointers to steer you in the right direction:

Your Online Store

There are a few options available when choosing an e-commerce solution. Hosted e-commerce platforms are a popular choice for online stores and offer an easy way to get your store up and running through their platform, using their servers and support.

A benefit of hosted e-commerce platforms is that you aren’t required to have a vast amount of tech knowledge. There are many hosted e-commerce platforms out there, so it’s wise to do some research on their various features and price plans to find one that best suits your needs.

If you are tech-savvy or merely want a more customizable online retail solution, then choosing an open source solution may be best.

Your Brand

Planning your brand is an essential step towards getting started. You will need to consider the ‘feel’ that you are going for, what will your online shop look like, what’s the image that you are going for is it bargain or luxury? Vintage or cutting edge?

If you want potential customers to buy into your idea and purchase your products they need to like what they see. Therefore, the overall styling of your online store, the product images, and product information are vitally important. Your website is your primary means of communication with potential customers in the absence of face to face customer service.

Once you’ve established your brand’s look, it’s time to think about a logo that suits it perfectly. Professionally designed logos can cost megabucks, but spending a small fortune on your logo isn’t necessary. Simply choose a logo design that reflects your brand’s personality, and you’re happy to see representing your brand.

Plan your Products

You will need to spend some time thinking about what you want to sell in your online store, thinking about your store’s image and the reasons that you wanted to sell online in the first place can help to guide you if you’re stuck.

At this point, e-commerce businesses usually fall into a couple of categories; those that want to focus on profit, and will source products which will make them the most money; and those that are passionate about a particular product and want to sell it, or are selling items that they have made themselves.

Also, consider creating or marketing products that are congruent to your niche. Profits and products you are passionate about are great, but if they don’t fit your niche and brand it won’t make sense to promote them.

For example, I’m a big gamer and nerd, but promoting products like board games I’m into on my business site here wouldn’t make much sense. That would, however, fit well on my Nerd Problems Gaming YouTube Channel and site.

Know your niche and who you are trying to help will go a long way in helping you choose the right products to promote.

Logistics Of Your E-Commerce Business

The logistics of your new business venture is another crucial consideration; how will you source the products that you plan to sell? Will you use drop shipping, or will you require storage facilities and create a warehouse space?

Next, you will need to think about how your products are going to reach your potential customers, which service will you use to ensure that delivery is reliable and trustworthy? Once you’ve decided on your choice of delivery service, it is the time to consider the cost implications of your chosen delivery service, and it’s potential knock-on effect on your pricing strategy.

Checkout

Once your e-commerce business is ready to launch you will need to consider the way that you handle transactions. Depending on the e-commerce solution that you have chosen this may be included as part of the service, but you will need to double check.

When customers purchase goods from you, you will have access to sensitive personal data, such as their address, name, and payment details. You will need to ensure that these confidential details are not compromised. One solution for this is to use Jumio to ensure that your customers’ identities are safe and to help protect against issues such as credit card fraud.

Affiliate marketing could be another business option

Starting an e-commerce business is a great option, but you typically have to deal with shipping, suppliers, and physical products. Another great option you may want to consider is to start an affiliate marketing business instead.

With an affiliate marketing business or network marketing business you could focus solely on bringing in traffic, leads, and sales, and skip the logistics end of the business almost completely!

With an affiliate marketing business, for example, you are simply taking someone else’s products or services and promoting them. The sales process and delivery are taken out of your hands, and you just earn commissions each time a product is sold.

You can spend the majority of your time simply creating content and selling, which can get your online business into profit quicker. If you’d like to learn more about starting an affiliate marketing business, check out my affiliate marketing beginners guide!

Promoting your e-commerce business

Regardless if you choose to start an affiliate marketing business or e-commerce business, you’ll need to promote it. However, getting the word out is more than just spamming your links across social media.

If it were that easy a company wouldn’t need you at all and everyone would already be millionaires with an e-commerce business. The foundation of promoting your business online should be to serve your audience.

What this means is that you should be creating content that helps your niche solve a problem or get results faster. Then at the end of your content, you simply tell your audience to purchase your products to get optimal results solving their problem or to reach their goal the fastest.

This is really the foundation of attraction marketing. Certainly, there is more to it, but the idea is to have customers come to you, rather than having to hunt them down.

If you’d like to learn more about attraction marketing, be sure to check out my free guide to attracting more customers below!

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Mike MacDonald

Facebook: facebook.com/coachmikemacdonald

Email: [email protected]

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