As the saying goes, great things start from humble beginnings. That’s especially true for the big, established websites of today. Once upon a time, they were fledgling SMEs too, in search of a customer base and likely struggling with the competition.
Nowadays, it makes sense for businesses to carve an online presence as a complement to their physical stores or as their one and only point of sales. Everyone is going mobile, and more and more people are preferring online shopping. Chances are, more people will discover your business through the Web than in a shopping mall. If your brand delivers on its promises, your customers will love you enough to spread the news to others. And it all happens in just a click of the mouse or a tap on the screen.
This why having an e-commerce website is an invaluable asset to your business. Here are four tips to remember when starting an e-commerce website.
1. Create a Business Plan
Setting up an e-commerce website should always start with planning. Start by asking yourself these essential questions so you can strategize future actions.
- What are you selling? How is your product/service different and better than what your rivals are currently offering?
- Who’s your target market? How can you address their wants and needs?
- What’s your business model? Will you be focusing on delivering quality or cheaper pricing? Which products will give you the greatest profit margin?
- What’s your business’s DNA? Because that’s where it all starts. It influences the company ideals, goals, mindset, and strategies. It affects the way you run things and the way you deal with customers and your employees.
- What is your mission? Have a real, honest intention to help others, and ultimately your product or service should be all about offering reliable solutions. That’s how you build brand trust.
Asking the above questions will ultimately affect any design direction you decide to take as well as what functionalities you will need to implement on the website to make your vision happen.
2. Be Prepared with the Technical Details
Setting up an online shop can be a daunting task if you have little knowledge about technical details. Find a mentor who can advise you on these matters, ask around, and do your research—only when you are fully informed you can weigh all the options.
- Choose the right e-commerce platform. Our favorite is Magento, but there are other good options out there such as WooCommerce for WordPress and Drupal Commerce. You’ll find pros and cons for each—pricing, store design choices, app and SEO support, scalability and customization, etc. Read up on their different features before committing to the perfect solution for you.
- Choose the right domain name. Yes, most of the great ones are taken already, but you can still get the right domain name to perfectly suit the theme and expectations for your online shop. Make sure it’s unique, sounds good, is memorable and easy to spell. Here are a few tips on how to choose a good domain name.
- Decide on a web hosting plan. You can go the DIY route by buying your own server or have your e-commerce platform take care of it. Just remember the faster and more dedicated your server is, the faster your website loads, giving visitors the best user experience. It does not mean that you should take an expensive machine. Varnish cache or FPC (Full Page Cache) are here to release some of the load on your server decreasing your costs big time.
- Terms and conditions. What’s your preferred payment method? What’s your policy on returns/exchanges? Can customers reach you via phone or email, or QQ (this is super duper important for China)?
- Check country specific regulations. In order to operate and establish an e-commerce store , different countries have different requirements and regulations you need to be aware of before making the investment. In China, for example, you need to have an ICP license to host your online store within the Mainland.
3. Get Good People on Your Side
Gather a pool of talented, passionate people who will help you set up, grow, and maintain your online shop. That includes web designers, graphic artists, developers, webmasters, copywriters, SEO specialists, customer service reps for your product/service. You will also be dealing with 3rd party suppliers, technicians, and many others. Whether you share the same office with them, or are simply outsourcing, it’s a good idea to nurture your relationship with all your business partners so they’ll perform at their best. Most importantly though, make sure to have someone within your business either your mentor, an investor, shareholder, cofounder, etc…that can help you with the initial business plan and set your business on the right track.
4. Be Future-proof
Companies come and go, but the most flexible ones adapt and strive in an unpredictable online atmosphere. Making your e-commerce site future-proof isn’t just about the technical stuff such as responsive design. It’s also about catering to the ever-changing tastes and needs of your customer base. Research those tastes and needs, anticipate trends, and offer something new so you’re always ahead of the competition. Be a creative, fun and attractive company!
Don’t forget to also double check your margins and costs of promoting your actions through SEO, SEM and SMM. This will help you in terms of positioning and in understand if your long term strategy is sustainable. Do not hesitate to send a good amount of traffic on your website to check your conversion rate and see if it is where you hoped it would be. Remember, starting an e-commerce website can be as fun, challenging, and rewarding as you want it to be. However, on your way up the success ladder, try not to commit these 5 common mistakes.
As you can see, there is a lot more to setting up an e-commerce than uploading pretty product pictures and adding a shopping cart to your website. Without a clear objective plan, and the necessary knowledge and resources, it doesn’t matter how good your idea, chances are you won’t be a big success like you were hoping to be. Opening your own online store requires a lot of time, dedication, determination and willpower, so get as much help and advise as you can to make the ride as smooth as possible.
If you have any questions about setting up an e-commerce website or would like our help setting up yours for the Chinese market and all its particularities, or for the rest of the world, let us know!