How do I start my own online store?

What will set your services or products apart from all the others?  Where will you fit in among your competitors? Knowing if your products/services are needed or in demand, the make-up of your target audience (income, location, how many people interested in my type of business), who your competitors are and their pricing will all help you decide what you can do to set yourself apart and find your niche. “Having a well-defined target market is more important than ever. No one can afford to target everyone. Small businesses can effectively compete with large companies by targeting a niche market” (Porta, 2010). Market research is a great way to determine if there is a need for your services/products. Exploring what type of businesses are already in your area or gathering information about your target audience will help you stay competitive.

With any new business venture, you need to have a well thought out business plan. A good business plan will help you clearly map out your strategy for your business. There are many business plan templates online to help you get started. It will help you organize and detail the steps you need to take in order to reach your goals and develop a timeline for the results you want to achieve. Discovering who your competitors are, your target audience, where your business may stand in the marketplace and making sure you can do everything you set out to do within your budget are also important things to be aware of and good plan will help you to do that. It will serve as a way to help you navigate through all the key elements of your new business and as you grow, if you need funding or want to bring in a partner, it will help you show them your vision. For my clients, I created a company playbook template that will help you outline your objectives, track progress on your goals and organize your business plan. The Playbook also includes a section for you to create and add your companys vision statement, mission statement, SWOT and key objectives.

If you are selling products, you need to decide if you are going to drop ship your products or hold your own products.  Drop shipping has become very popular and a lot of people prefer to use this method. If you are not sure which to choose, I have given a short description of each.

Drop shipping doesn’t require you to keep the products you sell in stock. Instead, you purchase the products from a third-party supplier and then ship them directly to the customer. The best part of drop shipping is that there are no housing costs, no need to worry about pickup and delivery, and no capital needed upfront to purchase the item.  The only issue I have ever had is that you need to figure out a process for returns and making sure customer support available.

Doing your own shipping means holding and storing your products at your location. It also means you handle everything from pick-up to delivery. The cost is a little more, but you are in complete control of the product and returns are easier to handle.  This comes down to customer experience and what works best for you.

Now this is one of my favorite parts! As a tech person, I love to find the best platform fit for my clients. Choosing an ecommerce platform is critical since the platform you choose will need to support the growth of your business.  Now this mostly will depend on how tech savvy you are and if you want to manage the ecommerce platform yourself. If this is not something you are comfortable with, you can get someone to safely and easily manage it for you. I help my clients all the time decide what solution is best for them and I also manage some of their sites for them as well. Let’s take a look at some of the options out there for you to choose:  hosted ecommerce platforms, self-host ecommerce platforms, and third-party platforms or online marketplaces.

A hosted ecommerce platform is software as a service (SaaS) which is a cloud-based service where a third party-provider hosts and provides the online store to customers over the Internet. This option is great for individuals or small and medium sized businesses that have little or no ecommerce development experience and who don’t want to handle the technical side of hosting their own ecommerce. There are many hosted ecommerce platforms out there, I have listed what I consider the top 7 ecommerce platforms:
Magento Commerce,
BigCommerce,
Shopify,
WooCommerce,
3dcart,
Volusion, and
Opencart.

I will be writing another article that will go in to detail on each of these platforms in the coming week. Top 7 Ecommerce Platforms for you Ecommerce Store

A self-hosted ecommerce platform is when the user self-hosts on a server or a web hosting account utilizing an open source platform. This option is great for individuals and businesses that are tech savvy enough to handle the management and security updates, website maintenance, and performance.  I have chosen three of my favorite open source platforms for you that can be downloaded for free: Magento, WooCommerce and OpenCart.

An online marketplace is an ecommerce website that offers many different products from numerous sellers.  This option is great for individuals and businesses that just want to list their products on a well-known website such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Etsy, Alibaba or Google Express.

Note: With Hosted and Self-Hosted solutions, a good ecommerce platform is able to list your products to Online Marketplaces which is a bonus.

Let’s talk about how we are going to get customers to your online store.   We need to pick a marketing strategy and there are many to choose from: SEO, SEM, Paid Ads, Platform marketing, Email marketing or Influencer marketing. Research is key here. Determining your marketing strategy will depend on who you are trying to reach and what you want to achieve.

SEO is designed to increase your website traffic, the process helps by increasing the visibility of your website or page to online users through the search engine.  This strategy is also called content marketing where the goal is to be able to gather data and produce a lot of unique content.  When we talk to our clients about the SEO process, it includes:  Website analysis, client requirements, keyword search, link building, content generation, Search engine submissions, reports are the building blocks of this process.

While I am sure you all know about social media; here we are exploring what social media marketing is and how it could help you with your new business. Social media marketing (SMM) is internet marketing which includes the creation of content that is posted on social media platforms specifically for your target audience with your company’s goals in mind. Whether you are trying to increase audience reach, increase brand awareness, or gain insights or analytics, social media marketing is a great way to promote your new online store.  Social media marketing allows you to get creative with your marketing strategy and engage with your audience.
Social media has become one of the most important aspects of marketing over the last few years. Even though many of our clients saw the necessity and benefits of it, they had no idea where to begin. What platforms should they consider, do you have to be on all of them? Do they have the technology to support it? Should they try to tackle it themselves? How would they decide what the right marketing plan would be for their company? I realized that my years of experience in this industry could help them make the best decisions regarding their social media campaigns. I created a Social Media Audit Template that allows you to analyze and create the best strategy for your business.

Paid marketing or paid search marketing allows businesses to advertise in the sponsored listing of a search engine for a cost. The most popular use of paid marketing is through a pay-per-click model which means that the business only has to pay the fee when someone clicks on their ad.

Google AdWords or Google Ads – “is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers pay to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, video content and generate mobile application installs within the Google ad network to web users.”

Most business owners know the importance of having AdWords done correctly. By setting it up the right way it can elevate your business, and if not, it could cost your business thousands of dollars and the loss of valuable time. Make sure you consult with an experienced tech company and do it right the first time. If you need help, my team and I are always available for consultation.

This method allows you to use one of the main ecommerce platforms like Amazon, eBay or Google Express to set up your store for you. They have all the tools and resources needed to create your store, provide products, and shipping.

Email marketing is exactly what it sounds like. Marketing through email. This type of marketing helps with brand awareness by sending your messages to potential customers. The cost is low and the benefits can be great. It is a simple and easy way to get your name out there.

Influencer marketing involves hiring or paying people who are leaders in specific markets to promote your brand. Influencers can have millions of followers. If you can pay an influencer to promote your product, the effect will be greater brand awareness and increase audience reach and engagement.