How To Start An E-Commerce Business From Scratch

Starting an E-Commerce business website from scratch is the best way to learn and succeed as an entrepreneur. However, you may have to work extra hard than if you were to buy an existing e-commerce business.

With that in mind, here are three main steps you need to start an e-commerce business from scratch.

1. Product, Supplier, and Market Research

Product and Market

Market research is the first step to succeed online and in any other business. Find a product that is in demand. The demand must be enough to make your e-commerce business commercially viable.

Supplier

If you aren’t manufacturing your product, then you need to find the right supplier. Ideally, you need a supplier who can meet your demands on short notice.

2. Branding and Business Registration

Brand

Once you have settled on a product and service, the next step is to create your eCommerce brand. You can opt to have a neutral but identifiable brand name. However, it should be unique and memorable.

You will need to do a name search in the jurisdiction you want to register your business.

Tax Number

If the brand name is available, you can register it, get a tax number, and seek the services of a registered accountant. Remember, being tax compliant is as important as making a profit.

Accountant

Often, a business registration service can help you with e-commerce accounting, taxes, and payroll issues.

3. Online Presence

If you were setting up a retail store, this would be the time to look for a suitable location for your store. With an ecommerce store, any location can do a physical business address.

Instead, what matters most when it comes to ecommerce, is your online store, website, sales funnel, and Email platform. The four help you to capture, interest, and convert leads into sales.

Online Store

You can connect an online store to the main website through a subdomain. That’s important to protect it from a traffic surge that can occur on the primary website.

It also makes it easy to secure it from hacking. Access to some of the online store’s features is available to registered users only. Overall, that gives you customers a great shopping experience.

Website

With a website, you can educate your potential customers, highlight offers, and capture leads. To do that, you need to publish quality content that is helpful to your audience.

A website helps you to create a community of loyal customers. A returning customer is often more valuable than a one-time customer.

Email Address

Most of your leads will be in the form of email addresses. Customers will submit them via your website or online store’s submission forms. Once you have them, you can use the email addresses to connect with customers periodically.

Sales Funnel

A sales funnel streamlines the lead capturing and nurturing process for you, making it possible to create a continuous stream of returning customers.

Briefly, that is how you start an ecommerce business from scratch.

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