You may be thinking of stepping into the online framework but your not sure whether it would benefit your brand or not. Perhaps you may be wondering what steps should be taken when joining the E-commerce band wagon. What are the steps you need to take to ensure that you have a successful transition into the online industry? Here are some do’s n dont’s for deciding on an e-commerce structure.
What is e-commerce?
E-commerce is an online platform that helps you to sell goods or services to users nationally or internationally on the world wide web. It allows potential customers to browse products/services, make purchases/bookings and pay online electronically. E-commerce setups help your business be at the forefront in this digital due to the fact that many people are finding it convenient to shop online rather than in stores.
Do’s of setting up your E-commerce store.
Outline your business venture, products and/or services.
Its important for you to know whether your products are to be shown online for people to call and purchase at your premises or whether you would like users to customize their purchase by means of product/service add ons.
Analise your target market and area.
If you are going to be selling online think of the delivery methods you can offer, pricing factors and/or whether you are selling predominantly to your immediate community or extending your product/service offering to neighboring areas.
Decide what online E-commerce platform do you use:
There are a number of E-commerce platform providers to help you list your products/services. Here are some examples below.
Shopify – A registered verified account (paid for monthly) is required to sell products online. It is important to note that shopify takes a small percentage of each total sale that is completed within shopify.
Woocommerce – You would require domain registration and hosting to setup Woo-Commerce with WordPress. It is advised that you outsource a professional to assist you. Woocommerce is great for product SEO as well as integrating with other various accounting software and marketing plugins.
3rd party such as Etsy – Amazon -These sites charge a small portion for listing your products and the only downfall may be that you cannot fully customize user shopping experience to align with your brand.
Once you have finalized this figure out whether you would like to do continue with your venture privately or outsource a freelancer/digital company.
Dont’s
Don’t try to do something online without consulting professional digital companies or a digital personnel
Sometimes its great to do your online product listing privately as you can save money and personalize it to your liking – however consulting with a company for advice and quotations is recommended as doing something for the first time online can be tricky. It is possible the one may hit a stumbling block which will end up costing more thereafter to resolve. Your e-commerce store may also not start up with as much effectiveness as you may have liked – resulting in you thinking that this is not working when in actuality it most probably needs an easy fix from experts to help boost your brands e-commerce
Do not set up complex sites for a small business structures
Though it is great to shoot for the moon, it may not be required at the stage of inception for your online store. If you have a few products or services that you would like to list online, you should start of your online store in the correct proportion required as well as aligning to your budget.
Don’t procrastinate
Often people start e-commerce projects but leave them at a stand still or over think the process of online selling. This results in prolonging your product/service offering being listed online. You can choose to launch your e-commerce store with the basics and build from there as most online frameworks are made for continuous customization.
Don’t shoot down online marketing once your site/store is live
Once your site/store is live ensure that you then place some focus on marketing your store. This lets people know that they can find your brand, product or service online. By choosing to disregard follow up marketing you loose potential clientele and favourability.
Don’t oversell yourself online.
It is not advisable for you to oversell your product/service as something that it may not be. For example if you are setting up an online food outlet whereby people can place orders for food and you offer deliver – do not oversell yourself by saying that you can get the order delivered in a time frame that is not realistic. It may bring you an influx of orders in beginning – however if users find that your service/product is not what they expected they will regard you as less favorable without your knowing. Users that get frustrated with online purchases tend to be vocal about this in online forums which other potential customers may view.
Whatever you new venture is, Zavaki will make the time to assist you and guide you into your online transition. We offer services such as Woo-commerce store setups and online marketing for stores. Chat to us for more info.
