Here are some of the important steps you need to put in place before you start setting up your online business and selling your products or services online:
1. Conduct market research
If customers are not searching for your services online, or they aren’t interested in buying online, then you may need to rethink your online strategy. You may need to change your product offering or target different customers. You may even need to reconsider your business model as you seek to integrate your online store. Think about the impact that selling online may have on existing supplier relationships, distribution, packaging, freight, and after sales service. Either way, some initial research to define your ideal customer is very valuable. If customers want to buy online ask what words they will type into the search engine to find your products. These words should be included in your product descriptions and headings in your website, making it easier to find your online business.
2. Create a Product Catalogue
Use a spreadsheet to record all the information for the products you want to sell. Some typical things to include are the product name, product photo, price, variable information such as size, colour weights, pack sizes, and description. You may also want to create product categories to help group large numbers of products. If you are selling clothing you might like to group products under traditional headings such as shirts, pants, jackets, etc. Some of our clients have 20 products others have 20,000.
3. Delivery
Work out how you are going to deliver your products to your customers and what costs should be associated with packaging and freight. Will you deliver locally, nationally, or internationally? You may need to link up with a courier company to help with this area or alternatively offer free delivery. As mentioned this may impact your business model in regard to people resources required, the capacity to answering inquiries, customer service, and order fulfilment.
4. Payment System
You will need to have a way of processing credit card payments online in a secure way. There are a number of providers who offer this service, such as Paypal, Stripe, or Paymark. We use Stripe because they are quick and easy to set up, have good support, and a huge international customer base. You also don’t need to have credit card processing facilities to use their service. All you need is a Stripe account and bank account to receive payments.
5. A Website
You will need to have a website set up to start selling online. If you don’t have a website, we can help get you started. Get in touch to find out how we can help you with this vital step.
It is preferable that you have your business domain name attached to your website too.
6. Customer Acquisition
You will need to consider how you will attract customers to your store once it is set up. You can start building an audience before you open your E-commerce Platform. You can use social platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to build an audience that will be interested in your store and converted to customers once you launch. Email marketing is another powerful tool to lead customers to your digital store. Have you got a strategy to collect customer emails so you can lead them to your store?
