If you have made up your mind to start an online selling business during these hard times of COVID-19 pandemic, you are not going wrong. Unlike any other businesses or companies, the ecommerce businesses are flourishing like never before. In fact, online sales are reportedly increased many times more than even during the holiday seasons. When you are preparing to set your step into the enormous ecommerce market, you might not be well-acknowledged on how to start the online business from scratch. Indeed, it seems to be confusing and jumbled at first. Fortunately, we are taking that responsibility to help you in starting a powerful online selling business with our step by step procedures. If you are someone who always wanted to start selling online, but couldn’t do so due to lack of the right guidance, this blog is a must-read for you.
Ecommerce business offers immeasurable opportunities to anyone who has an internet connection. As per global research, the retail rates from ecommerce businesses can potentially total up to $2.3 trillion, this year. Also, the annual growth rate from 2020 to 2024 is estimated to be about 7.8% as a result of which the U.S. market volume would account to $3.1 trillion by 2024. The competition in the online selling business is increasing significantly higher. Despite all the odds, this is indeed the best times to start an online selling business or an ecommerce business. From all the ways of earning money, selling online is probably the only easiest and fastest possible method. It depends on the business strategy you employ to get your share of value in the ecommerce market. Our guide to getting started with selling online will not only give you insights to starting an ecommerce business but also will help you in facing the hurdles of establishing a successful ecommerce business, in the right way, amidst the cut-throat competition in the ecommerce market.
The Step-By-Step Procedure to Sell Online
Before you invest your precious time and money in starting an online store, you must first know whether it is the right business for you. Therefore, we are providing you with a guide to decide whether it is the best business for you to pursue through the pros and cons of selling online.
So, what are the pros of selling online?
While the biggest advantage is to make money right from the comfort of your home in your pyjamas is definitely considered, there are many other convincing reasons to take up ecommerce as a serious business, they are as follows:
- You can frame your hours of working for the business as well as decide how far you are going to take the business.
- You can run an ecommerce business along with your regular job to earn a few extra bucks.
- It is a simple form of business which is already known by almost every individual on earth. You know how it functions, don’t you?
- You can sell anything that pleases your interests and earn money.
- Compared to all other forms of businesses, it is the easiest and affordable form of business. You do not need to rent a store, hire employees, or invest in hoardings and other physical marketing campaigns anymore.
- With drop shipping options, you do not have to worry about storing your store’s inventory.
- With ready-to-use ecommerce solutions, selling online is same as a cakewalk, and we mean it!
What are the Cons of Selling Online?
Like a coin has its flipside, selling online has a few downsides as well, they are as follows:
- Although it is easy to start selling online, it takes time to get consistent with the sales and earning revenue for the company.
- You’ll need to be in the game of selling online and compete with your likes in order to learn the art of selling online efficiently.
- While starting an ecommerce business, you probably do everything from sales to accounting to managing, all by yourself.
- You do not know the faces of your customers and therefore the chances of fraudulent purchases prevail. Therefore, you’ll need to make sure that you are following all the necessary steps to adhere to the security guidelines of selling online.
In a nutshell, an ecommerce business is not something that will make you rich in a blink of an eye. But, if you are willing to patiently wait for getting your business onto the track, the sky is the limit for the success rate of your online selling business. Moving onto the steps to be followed to start an online business, below is a step-by-step guide for you to follow in order to create a beautiful online store:
Decide an Impressive Product Catalogue
The first step is to decide what products you are selling in your ecommerce store. Whatever the products be, you have to make sure that it is a great product so that your process of setting up a successful online business becomes a lot easier. Find a comfortable niche and choose the products that perfectly fit that business niche. You must assure that the products you choose should not belong to an overcrowded market, but, is also marketable and provides a decent profit margin. You can decide the products based on your set of skills to sell online. Do keep in mind that when choosing the product, you must do thorough market research wherein you understand what the need of the hour is and sell what is in and shall be in demand for the long run. If you are already running an ecommerce business and you wish to expand your product catalogue, you need to do the same. You do not have to invent newer products to add to your catalogue in order to establish a successful business. Many online sellers sell products of the same brand, manufactured in the same company, but still earning handsome revenue from it. Once decided, consider ordering your products in bulk from manufacturers.
Pick the Right Ecommerce Platform
You can hire developers to do the part of creating an online store and mobile app (it is essential to have one), but hey, why waste your investment amount when you can create one yourself? Yes, you did read that right, you can easily create a wonderful online store, irrespective of your type of products. You might find many ecommerce platforms online, but finding a complete ecommerce solution could be difficult. Do not worry, we have found one for you! It is Builderfly, India’s leading ecommerce platform with stunning ready-to-use themes and templates for different businesses that can perfectly suit unique business requirements. There are different pricing plans for different stages of business development. You can explore the features offered in Builderfly by signing up for the 14-days free trial. Get access to everything you’ll need to step into the ecommerce industry and create a powerful online presence much effortlessly.
Create an Ecommerce Store
Now that you know where to create your online store, it is time to create one! With Builderfly, all you have to do is register, manage your store settings, design the store, design a mobile app, optimize the store and app, integrate multiple selling platforms, manage everything at one place, publish the apps, and do much more and enjoy sitting back in your chair. Apart from the 24/7 dedicated customer support, you can get a detailed picture of managing your online store and app in the user manual, training documents, FAQs, blogs, and website. Moreover, in case of any queries, you can raise a ticket to get in touch with the Builderfly team at the earliest. There is a feature wherein you can ask the Builderfly team to do the part of creating your online presence for you with some minimal additional charges. Although you do not have to be a technical specialist to create a store with Builderfly, if you are quite busy trying to attract customers to your business, Builderfly is doing the work for you in the backend.
Connect your domain and Go Live
Once you are ready to go live to the global audience, it is time that you connect your domain to the ecommerce store. A domain name is the identity of your store and you have to be sure that it is short, crisp, and easy to remember by your potential customers. Your domain name is the one your customers use to search for your business in various browsers, which means, it is the way to create that first impression in your customers’ mind. Make sure that you are making it count. Draw a strategic marketing plan to reach the right set of customers once you have made your store live.
Conclusion
It was all about creating an online store. Simply creating an online store and leaving it aside won’t work for you. You need to measure the results of creating the store by checking your store’s performance. In Builderfly, you get this facility as well! In the Manage Store section, you can check the performance of your store. Moreover, you can also keep a record of the products that are the best selling and that are most loved by your customers. We hope you have already started to plan for your online store. Happy selling, folks!
