If you want to start an e-commerce site, you should develop a well-thought-out and bulletproof plan. The competition is stiff and it is not easy to unseat established companies. However, if you know what to do and how to build the best site, you can succeed. While still an uphill battle, with these four steps, you can build an effective and profitable e-commerce site.
Warehouse:
Before you start building a website, you should think about where you are going to store your products. When setting one up, you will want to ensure you have the right supplies and enough space. You also need to find a place near shipping centers as you will not want to spend your days waiting for FedEx and UPS trucks. As your business grows, you will want to think about efficiency as your established competition will beat you on this if you let them. With an automated warehouse, you can save money on labor costs, decrease shipping times and avoid mistakes. As you grow, this is paramount to your success as labor costs and slow shipping times kill e-commerce sites as consumers demand speed. Furthermore, if you commit errors often, you will waste money and hurt your relationships with customers. Once you set up a warehouse, you are well on your way to running a profitable company.
Find a supplier:
If you want to succeed and provide buyers with quality products, you need to find a quality supplier. This is not always easy as you need to search, both on an offline, for a provider. Ideally, when you look for a seller, you would find one near your headquarters. With a supplier in the area, you can receive your items quickly. At the same time, as problems occur, and they will, you can stop by and resolve them immediately. With a solid relationship with your supplier, you will avoid common problems facing other e-commerce site owners. While looking for a provider of products, you also need to run the numbers and ensure you can turn a profit. If you can make money and the supplier is reliable, you will have a serious advantage against your competitors.
Build the best site:
It is difficult to build a site people will enjoy and return to often. In the past, e-commerce entrepreneurs used WordPress or a template. While effective for a simple blog or website, it is not smart to use these methods when looking to build the most secure site. Instead, when making an e-commerce site, you should consider user experience design, meaning making a site people will enjoy. To do this, test out the site, ensure everything works and above all else, create something that you enjoy. With a qualified programmer, you can enjoy a quality site and your visitors will take notice.
Marketing:
With social media, SEO and email marketing, you can find plenty of excited buyers. To run an effective marketing campaign, you should write quality website content and provide value to your readers. At the same time, if you can, you need to guest post blog as this is an excellent way to build traffic and rise in the SEO ranks. To succeed in social media, you need to sign up for Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts. Then, you should post frequently and respond to customer inquiries in a timely matter. Finally, once you find clients and keep them around, you should occasionally market to them via email. With a friendly reminder, you can coax your customers into heading to your site and spending money. If you can follow a marketing strategy and bring in plenty of visitors, you will succeed.
An e-commerce site is a great business idea. However, you need to set up a warehouse, find a supplier, build a site and market it to your clients in an intelligent matter. If you do this, you will succeed.
About the Author: Rick Delgado is a freelance writer and self-proclaimed nerd who is an expert in technology and software development. He enjoys keeping up with the latest tech innovations and writing about them.
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sonesh
April 18, 2014 at 8:46 pm
Very clearly explanation about starting e commerce site
This is going to help me
Thanks
Sudipto
April 20, 2014 at 6:59 am
Hey Rick,
Great article and Thanks for sharing this post with us. You explained very well and it helps many people to start an e-commerce site.
Prakash
April 20, 2014 at 9:20 am
Thanks fir sharing this nice article. Running an E commerce site is not as easy as it looks. It is really very hard to manage things in that site.