ECommerce is a trillion-dollar industry.
Whether you’re running a B2B or B2C store, eCommerce is a land of opportunity for all those looking to expand their business or start afresh.
Now, starting an eCommerce store is pretty standard in and of itself.
But there are certain considerations that eCommerce entrepreneurs need to take into account before starting out.
In this post, we’ll be outlining eight of these considerations in detail.
If you’re an entrepreneur looking to get started with eCommerce, then keep on reading, because this guide will prove extremely helpful to your future goals.
So, without wasting any time, let’s begin!
Create an experience with exceptional packaging
Modern marketing is not just limited to simple catchphrases and dialogues. It’s more about immersing users in your brand as much as possible.
In a traditional brick and mortar store, you’re investing in the sensory experience. The smells, the sights, the sounds, and the overall feelings you get from the store are essential aspects of the store experience.
Emulating that same experience on an eCommerce store is a tough task. You don’t have the same level of physical engagement.
In that case, what can you do?
Well, even if the experience is limited, you still have one essential aspect of it present on an eCommerce: the visual one.
You can do so much in that category. From creating a modern site design, to using attractive colors, having eye-catching web pages, and improving the overall eCommerce experience – there is so much you can do.
Besides that, another way to successfully convert your eCommerce processes is to ensure that your packaging reflects your brand’s voice.
If you can’t entice them with your physical store, there’s always the option of using packaging to ensure that your company’s brand is reflected.
There’s so much you can do to add value to your packaging:
- Make it a scented package.
- Package the product in a goodie bag.
- Create personalized packaging.
- Use eco-friendly packaging.
…among other creative ideas. There’s so much you can do to make the purchasing experience of your eCommerce store enticing.
Going the extra mile doesn’t hurt anyone.
The right supplier can go a long way
Most eCommerce entrepreneurs start off not thinking much about their supply chain, and order fulfillment processes.
This needs to be avoided at all costs if you’re looking to start off on the right foot.
It matters not what line of business you’re in, if you’re selling a product, optimizing your supply chain is crucial.
There are plenty of considerations you need to take into account before you select the right supplier for your business.
From order fulfillment, industry reputation, to quality control processes, their ability to meet deadlines, communication strategy, and more.
There are many things you need to look for in the right supplier.
Take a long hard look around your industry and see which supplier is currently providing the best delivery and order fulfillment services.
Unless you’re one of the lucky few entrepreneurs who have already landed on a supplier, there’s one more thing you need to consider.
While the costs may be a tad higher for a high-quality supplier, it’s all worth it when you are fulfilling orders effectively.
Affiliates and big names aren’t necessarily better
In the beginning many eCommerce entrepreneurs think that they need to rely on the big names to get more sales for their process.
This is where the concept of affiliate marketing came into play.
While that is quite an effective business model, you need to sell a lot in order to get more sales for your business.
In addition to that, you also have to adhere to the affiliates policies which can sometimes cause you to make false promises.
But why sell for an affiliate when you can sell your own product.
We know that it’s hard to compete against giants like Amazon. However, this is where your creativity and ingenuity come into play.
Nowadays, there are plenty of opportunities and avenues for you to expand your business process and compete against giants on an almost equal footing.
The end-goal is to ensure that your website is not limited to only selling products hosted on another company’s website.
Rise above the competition
The digital world is competitive. In order to stay ahead of the game, you need to stay head of the competition.
But here’s the thing.
Whatever industry you’re operating in, chances are, there will always be a big name dominating that industry.
Now, you might not have their credibility or their marketing budget, but what you do have is a unique creativity, a new flair.
How can you utilize that flair to your advantage? That’s the million-dollar question.
First of all, you need to understand your customers.
Where are they coming from? What are their preferences? What are their demographics? How will your eCommerce try to match their preference?
Even answering a few of these questions can prove detrimental to the success of your brand.
For example, simply homing on a specific target audience that the competition considers a general audience can help you capture that segment of the market from them.
Going out of the box works, folks!
With a little bit of creative thinking, you can find out where the competition is lacking, and capitalize on it using your own products and services.
Differentiate as much as you can
Take two eCommerce stores. They’re both selling the same thing, as part of the same industry.
One of those eCommerce stores is yours.
How will you differentiate your offerings to make your product sell more than the same product as your competitor?
Well, the answer here is simple. You need to differentiate.
You’d be surprised as to how much of a benefit you can have if you differentiate.
Think of the soap industry.
The essential ingredients are the same, but the differentiation is based on the smell, benefits for the skin, among other things.
Again, this is based on your creativity, and how much you can differentiate your products from the competitor.
Research is important in this regard.
If you’re selling identical products, you can differentiate on the basis of business practices.
A good example of this is making your products eco-friendly, and GMO free.
If the price remains the same, you can not only recapture your existing customers, but also a new range of customers who are concerned about the environment.
Think about scalability
If you’re an eCommerce business looking to start out, there are plenty of considerations that you need to take into account.
From having your eCommerce website developed to adding products, planning a marketing strategy and more – there’s an endless number of tasks to look at.
These considerations are essential in their own right.
But there is one certain factor that’s always disregarded by eCommerce entrepreneurs, it’s that of scalability.
Here’s why it matters so much.
You start up your business and over time, become successful.
Then you get a lot of orders and you don’t know how to keep up with the orders.
For that, there is a need to improve your entire business process.
This includes investing in a platform that can handle more orders, business process automation, and more.
Similar to starting a business, there are concerns down the road as well.
ECommerce entrepreneurs fail to take this into account and are left with a process that is not built to handle heavy orders.
To avoid growing pains, you need to invest towards scalability concerns as much as you can from the outset.
Having this helps you avoid the problems associated with the entire scenario when you’re gaining more sales and traffic for your website.
Keep at it
Starting a business can be a tough process. There are many considerations to look at, regardless of whether you’re running a physical or an eCommerce store.
The former is just as hard as the latter.
There are moments when it might seem like you don’t get it at all.
There are even chances that you might fail. But nothing will come if you don’t keep trying harder and harder.
We’ve seen eCommerce entrepreneurs go through years before they could get an adequate number of sales for their business.
Depending on your business, your time to success might be a little less longer. The end-goal is to keep trying as much as possible.
A/B testing is the best strategy in this regard.
Keep a close eye on your Analytics dashboard to check the progress of one strategy. If one doesn’t work, then you can switch gears to try the next one.
All in all, it’s a good way to create measurable goals for your business. Ultimately, you will hit a strategy that guarantees success for your business processes.
Final Words
For entrepreneurs looking to start their respective businesses, eCommerce is the way to go.
There is less overhead required, and, if you’re an eCommerce entrepreneur looking to get started with relatively less capital investment, then eCommerce is the best landscape to do so.
The only costs you would have to incur is time. The more time you give to your marketing, whether organic and inorganic, the quicker you will gain traffic for your business.
At the same time, the more you focus towards keeping your website optimized the better it will be.Â
If you’re a WooCommerce B2B store owner and want to enhance your productivity, then B2BWoo is the best option for you. It’s a one-stop-shop for your every WooCommerce B2B eCommerce solutions.
Good luck.
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