E-commerce is booming and has been for quite a few years, as more and more people turn to online shopping. The pandemic certainly helped the e-commerce industry, as multiple lockdowns forced many stores to close, which caused many shoppers to go online looking for the products they need.
If you are planning to set up a shopping cart website, you have come to the right place, as we outline essential aspects that you need to incorporate into your plan.
Getting Set Up for eCommerce Business
Setting up an ecommerce business means that you will need several steps to get up and running. These will include:
- Design & build a website
- Web hosting
- Site management (content etc)
- Cyber-security
While you can certainly manage all of this yourself, you will likely need to outsource some of this. You can often partner with a web developer who can manage all of these things for a flat cost.
Getting your website setup might be your biggest single outlay, as you might need to purchase website templates, subscriptions to digital tools and more.
You can use ecommerce tools such as Shopify who offer templates and automated processes such as payment processing and more.
Outsourcing bookkeeping & accounting
A key part of any business is managing your finances. This can include monthly invoices, reconciling bank transactions, paying contractors and suppliers and keeping track of any subscriptions you have.
Again, while you can do this yourself, it’s HIGHLY advised that you get an accountant to do the job for you. Luckily you don’t have to hire an accountant or bookkeeper full time, you can outsource.
Talk to the business accountants in South West Sydney and they can handle all your bookkeeping and accounting needs. Bookkeeping can be done by remotely located staff if you give them access to your cloud network and the accountant can file your tax returns.
Promoting Your eCommerce Store
Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can be successful without digital marketing; word of mouth simply isn’t going to be enough for sustainable success.
Connect with a leading digital marketing agency at the very outset and let them put together a dynamic digital marketing plan that delivers results. Search engine optimisation and social media marketing should both be part of your plan and with the help of a professional agency, the only way is up!
Click here for tips on how to make money on LinkedIn.
Order fulfilment
Logistics is an important aspect of running an e-commerce business and the best solution is to connect with an established 3rd party logistics (3PL) company. They have a state-of-the-art warehouse and the resources to pick, pack and deliver high volumes of packages.
Take your products and packaging to their warehouse, then all you have to do is forward all orders by email and your order fulfilment is taken care of.
Be customer focused
The secret to success for any business is to focus on the customer experience; make sure that your website offers a smooth and professional customer experience and they will surely return in the future.
Respond quickly to enquiries, offer returns if necessary and offer support such as help pages if the product needs.
Get accurate feedback from your customers and act on that to ensure that the purchasing experience is positive; this will ensure that your customers stay with you.
Be mindful of your competitors
It is a highly competitive world out there and if you want to be the top dog, you need to know what your rivals are doing. How do your products compare with other suppliers? Are your prices competitive? How about customer service? The answers to questions like these will help you to sharpen your game and be as competitive as you can.
Play devil’s advocate by looking at your business with a critical attitude and this will probably lead to some major improvements.
