Do you believe launching an online store is hard? Rethink. Of course, there’s the time-consuming research, market positioning, and implementation, which varies by niche. However, there are no barriers to launching an eCommerce firm.
In 2021, over 2.14 billion people will buy goods and/or services online, up from 1.66 billion in 2016.
Despite the abundance of eCommerce enterprises, some people are drawn to the world of eCommerce and want to learn how to establish an eCommerce business.
Learn How to Start an eCommerce Business
1. Find Your Niche
Some people know what they want to do, while others haven’t considered their passions or ideas. You are not alone if you identify with the second. Steps to finding your niche:
Find your passions
Whether it’s something you’ve always wanted to accomplish or something you’ve just discovered, write it down.
Find problems to solve
After identifying your passions, consider the problems you can help solve with your expertise.
Even if you don’t have any interests, you may always identify market holes to fill with your firm.
Find your niche’s profitability
Your niche’s profitability is determined by supply and demand. You can keep a high profit margin and target a bigger market if you’re unique, which you won’t be.
Conversely, an oversaturated niche forces you to target a narrow market and offer competitive prices. But it’s a start.
Competitor Analysis
You will face competition in the market you enter. Tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Spyfu can help you research the market.
These tools let you locate and analyze your competitors’ reach, as well as any gaps you can fill.
Test your ideas
Do you want to know how to build an online store? The end. It’s time to market your product.
Google and Facebook advertising can target specific markets, and you can keep testing and executing until you find the right one. Make sure you can gather feedback and enhance your product at the same time.
2. Make your business official
Also, while this may seem like a burden, it is a need before starting any firm.
Depending on where you live, you may need to conduct some study on how to establish a business there. For example, in the US, you must first:
3. Determine your company’s legal status
If you are a lone proprietor, you do not need to register your business with the state, but if you want to become a partnership, corporation, Limited Liability Company, or form a Non-Profit Organization, you must register with your state.
4. Obtain a business name
You will need a business name, which can be your full name or a “fictitious name”. A government agency handles name registration.
5. Obtain a Federal Tax ID
Whether you are a solo proprietor, a partnership, or a corporation, you need an EIN. This is also known as an Employer Tax ID or SS-4.
6. Buy a domain
A domain name should preferably match your business name after all legal registrations.
7. Pick an eCommerce Platform
There are dozens of eCommerce platforms available that let you set up your online business without having to develop your own website. The most popular eCommerce platforms include Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Wix.
Consider contrasting eCommerce platforms WooCommerce with Shopify. Choosing an eCommerce platform now boils down to:-
8. Cost
Obviously, you want to save money, so you compare what features are essential to you, jot them down, and then compare prices. For example, Bluehost offers free domain names and SSL certificates, as well as inexpensive web hosting starting at $6.95/month. Shopify offers a $29 basic plan.
9. Usability
If you aren’t tech-savvy, you may want to choose a platform that allows you to update many features of your website manually. Because WooCommerce is not a hosted platform, you must install, update, and backup it to keep it secure. With Shopify, you get it all. Just establish an account and a store.
10. Features
Both Shopify and WooCommerce have numerous features, some of which you may choose over others. You must select the most appropriate. You can easily scale up Shopify, unlike WooCommerce, by just upgrading your plan. However, WooCommerce is more configurable, contains over 55,000 free WordPress plugins, and gives you more power.
In Conclusion
This is all you need to know to establish an eCommerce business. You should also set up your merchant account and connect payment services like Paypal and Razorpay after creating your eCommerce website (ideally).
You can always employ an eCommerce developer to put up your eCommerce website if you’re a beginner. Then, you can choose a template, add inventory, and price your products.
In the long term, you may wish to engage a Digital Marketing company to handle your organic reach. Design, writing, and SEO and Adwords professionals can handle your advertisements, SEO, and social media presence.