How To Launch An eCommerce Business In 2019

Have you ever thought about starting an online store? Many small entrepreneurs are considering an eCommerce venture just because how accessible it is now. The reality for most of us is that even if we have a great product idea, we’re just too intimidated by the business operations side of things.

Fortunately, starting an eCommerce business is not that hard, as long as you’re willing to put in some effort. If you’ve been on the fence about starting an eCommerce company, this guide is for you. This post will cover the following aspects of an online store:

• Finding a product to sell
• Dropshipping business model
• Competitive analysis
• Choosing a business name
• Setting up an online store
• Marketing

#1 Finding A Product To Sell

Before you can even think of starting an eCommerce business, you need to think of a product that you can sell. This requires research, obviously, but you can also find product ideas through personal experience. And remember, there’s always going to be competition for any product that you want to sell. Don’t let this deter you, there are plenty of ways to differentiate yourself and market products afterward.

#2 Dropshipping Business Model

Dropshipping is an eCommerce business model in which you’re responsible for advertising products. And for any order that you get, it’s automatically forwarded to what’s called an ‘order fulfillment service’. The order fulfillment service is responsible for keeping the inventory, product packaging, and shipping.

Choosing a reliable fulfillment partner should be a top priority because if for any reason your customers don’t get their order, they’ll question you and not the fulfillment company.

I recommend taking a look at Oberlo, a fulfillment company with a huge product lineup. Simply sign up for their service and you’ll immediately be granted access to their product library. You can choose which products you’d like to sell and then start marketing them.

#3 Competitive Analysis

Now that you have an idea of what you’d like to sell, it’s time to look at the competition. Usually, you can find your top competitors by doing a quick Google search for the product you’re looking to sell. Try being creative with your searches, combine your product name with ‘buy’ to see what stores are selling it.

Once you know who your competitors are, you can take a deeper look at their business. Be sure to consider the following points during a high-level competitive analysis:

• Target customers: Find who your competitor’s target customers are. You can try spying on the competitor’s social media accounts to get a better picture of their customer profile. You’ll be marketing to the same people so it’s a good idea to understand what they like and dislike.
• Unique selling point (USP): How are your competitors differentiating themselves? Do they offer a stellar buying and shipping experience? How about free shipping? Check for any unique products that they’re selling, or any unconventional selling techniques such as subscription-based products.

#4 Choosing A Business Name

Ideally, a business name should convey what your company is all about and should be catchy and memorable. If you’re not particularly creative enough to come up with such a name, don’t worry. You can just go with a name that sounds catchy and is easy to spell and remember. Some online sellers will just name their business with the main product name in it.

This can be good for SEO purposes for a short while, but in the long run, it will severely limit your growth options. If you’re selling knives and your business is called ‘bestknives.com’, people won’t come there to shop anything else.

#5 Creating Your Store

Surprisingly, creating your online store is going to be the easiest part if you go with our advice. It’s simple really – you don’t have to opt for time-consuming and budget-draining eCommerce tools such as WordPress or Magento. The best eCommerce platforms such as Shopify and BigCommerce provide you with an excellent array of features to create a professional online store that will cater to any requirement you may have. Shopify has the edge in this regard as it’s more popular and has better third-party developer support.

As a result, Shopify has more than 2,500 plugins (or apps as they’re known) available. These plugins will help you extend the functionality of the platform beyond its core feature set. And you don’t have to be a technology wizard to use Shopify. It has been designed with the average computer user in mind, so really anyone can create a basic online store using it within hours.

Hosted platforms such as Shopify and BigCommerce are affordable enough that you won’t have to think much about budgeting for your website. Considering the eCommerce software options of the past, this really is a boon if you’re trying to launch the company on a budget.

#6 Marketing

Once you have the store up and running it’s time for it to get some traffic. Here, you have the option of getting organic traffic through search engine optimization or paid traffic through ads (Google AdWords and Facebook ads). There are plenty of creative marketing ideas that you can use. Don’t be afraid of trying new techniques in marketing. Everyone is vying for the same end-result and trying something different can give you the edge.

A Challenging But Fruitful Endeavor

Launching a successful eCommerce business is no small feat. From coming up with a compelling idea to actually getting your online store running, there are plenty of steps which can present roadblocks. However, the long term benefits are substantial. As your traffic grows and your store starts to gain traction, you’ll see your profits rise. Of course, marketing will be an ongoing expense but it will become easier to subsidize once you start making a good amount of sales.

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