How do you start an e-commerce business

How do you start an e-commerce business?

E-Commerce is growing at an unprecedented rate all over the world. Marketplaces are booming, and niche brands are launching daily, growing strong without the overheads of brick and mortar premises. For their customers, desktops are still the most popular device for placing orders, but as smartphone use increases, so do mobile transactions. Customer’s expectations when shopping online are increasing and a poor shopping experience just won’t cut it. For any business looking to grow online, providing exceptional shopping experiences is the only way.

What stage are you at?

Pick the stage that best describes your business status:

I’ve got Ideas

I want to sell on Marketplaces

I want to create my own website

I sell on-line but want to improve

Pick the stage that best describes your business status:

I’ve Got Ideas

So you want to start an e-commerce business?

Well, there’s never been a better time. E-commerce is growing fast, and it’s only getting more competitive. You are getting in at a good time.

Even better, it’s easier and cheaper than ever before to get started.

Deciding what to sell is your first step. You will always be at an advantage selling something you know about, so draw upon your own knowledge from your lifestyle. Think about products around your hobbies or things you already use.

Wholesalers and brands often have strict minimum order levels, and you will need to be prepared to invest to buy and store this stock.

If you want to try selling on-line without committing to large amounts of stock, consignment, drop-shipping or retail arbitrage are all options open to you with little to no investment.

Building the Brand

Wherever you sell, you need to make your brand identity clear.

If you are selling on a marketplace, offering great products and giving top standard service, you need customers to know that it is you, and not the marketplace giving them what they want. You need to be building customer loyalty for your business. Customising listings with professional design places your brand centre stage, so is a must for professional sellers looking to grow through marketplace sales.

Only sellers who have access to Amazon’s brand registry can have a custom designed Amazon store, but custom design in eBay listings is shown to improve sales by up to 30% and is available to all levels of seller, right from day one. Custom designed eBay listings do more than just project your brand – they can also incorporate sales boosting features like cross promotion and video in eBay listings.

On your own site, in terms of design, the sky is the limit. Design determines a user’s experience of your site, whether they look around and buy, or click off confused. User experience should be the reasoning for every element in your design, and it’s important that you work with a designer who understands customer behavior and sales funnels. Your marketing efforts will be pointless if you send customers to a site they will never buy from. Skills Mentor offer e-commerce website design for all budgets, created by e-commerce specialist designers with over a decade of experience.

I want to sell on Marketplaces

Over half of all e-commerce searches begin on marketplaces.

The reliable flow of customers is the biggest advantage for sellers on marketplaces. Even niche products that are viewed as too small or expensive to stock in the physical world can become massive markets. No longer limited by foot traffic, the addressable market for an online marketplace is worldwide; so long as one can lock in enough supply, then demand (and success) will follow.

Another big advantage of marketplaces is that you do not have to worry about site security or maintenance. Big marketplaces like Amazon and eBay have huge teams of developers working on these things, constantly reviewing and improving the site and shopping experience.

eBay

eBay has evolved from an auction site where customers could buy used goods at bargain prices, into a worldwide e-commerce destination where 80% of goods on offer are new.

Average time on site for customers is reported to be 50% higher than on Amazon, suggesting that this eBay presents the better opportunity for tempting browsing customers into multiple purchases. Sellers can use Froo! Cross Sell to show customers in their listings more of their inventory, and sellers with Skills Mentor listing design can control their cross promotion by category – so customers only see the items that are most likely to tempt them.

If you haven’t opened an eBay store yet, we have a step by step guide to setting up an eBay store.

Features

No matter what you sell, being competitive means having a site that can offer a full suite of features to help customers, increase your sales and bring your marketing efforts into play.

Our in house development team have built their own library of the most popular e-commerce features, so we can offer these to our clients without the development cost.

If you want something completely unique, something that no one else has, that’s fine too. Let your imagination run. We often build custom features and love a creative challenge.

We have worked with thousands of retailers; from brick and mortar stores wanting to expand into e-commerce, to retail giants like Dyson and Adidas, and people with just a product and a dream.

Wherever you are on your e-commerce journey, we have the experience and the expertise to take you to the next stage.

Take a look at some of our strongeste-commerce custom features.

Book a complimentary consultation with one of our e-commerce experts to discuss progressing your e-commerce journey.

Amazon

Amazon has grown from an online bookstore to the World’s largest e-commerce business, through which it’s now possible to buy virtually any product imaginable.

As well as being able to sell your products on Amazon, retailers can also choose to use Amazon’s own fulfilment services, meaning you can run an ecommerce business with all your products stored in Amazon’s warehouses, which are picked and dispatched by Amazon themselves.

You can set up an Amazon store here.

If you sell you own branded products Amazon brand registry helps you to protect your brand on Amazon, giving you greater influence over how your brand’s products are listed on Amazon. Brands on Amazon’s brand registry can also have a custom designed Amazon store.

Selling from multiple marketplaces

With BigCommerce or Shopify you can sell from multiple marketplaces, using your own website dashboard as a centralised hub for your selling.

In addition to this convenience, your own e-commerce website gives you extra credibility as a brand and enables you to sell with increased freedom and greater profit margins.

If you would like to sell your products from stores on multiple marketplaces, speak to a Skills Mentor e-commerce expert for free advice on how to set up and manage that with ease.

I want to create my own website

Selling from your own website is a lot like owning your own home. You can make changes, even dramatic structural ones, add features and answer to no one.You are the boss.

But, just like with being a homeowner, being a website owner comes with responsibilities. If there’s a problem with the site, the problem is yours to solve.

Make it Manageable

Your website has to be something you can manage and grow easily, with skills and knowledge you already have. That’s why Skills Mentor build e-commerce websites with a focus on the functionality from bothsides.

The experience of managing the store needs to be just as easy as the experience of shopping in the store.

Our expert in house development teams build sites on Shopify and BigCommerce because both platforms offer excellent control panels for sellers – and are robust and scalable enough to work for e-commerce businesses of all sizes.

And if you need help, there’s 24/7 support to guide you.

I sell on-line but want to improve

E-commerce is fast moving and competitive. Retail giants have fallen for failing to adapt.

Standing still is not an option!

If your website is over 12 months old, chances are that it’s performance could be improved with a fresh look or the addition of new features. Skills Mentor inhouse development team have created their own library of popular features, so retailers can use these features for their sites without the usual development costs.

Whatever features you feel would enhance your customer’s experience of your site, we can create them for you.

We have worked with thousands of retailers; from independent brick and mortar stores wanting to expand into e-commerce, to retail giants like Dyson and Adidas. Whatever you need, chances are we have experience of creating something similar, and our experienced e-commerce advisors are here to advise on everything from site navigation to stock management.

Get Found:

Whether you are selling on marketplaces or your own e-commerce website in order to be successful you and your products need to be found. There are quick wins and longer term strategies required to get found on search engines. Take a look at oureBay SEO guideand ourSEO for eCommercepages for more information.

Play to your Strengths

Our advisors will show you how to play to your strengths and combat your weaknesses online – designing your site to accentuate the unique aspects of your brand, and incorporating the strongest elements of your marketing.

If you have a strong social following, let’s create a clear path for that traffic and introduce customer reviews from your social accounts into your store as social proof. If you find a lot of customers through paid search, let us work with you to perfect those landing pages. It may be that you want to improve your appearance in natural search, increase conversion from product pages or reduce abandoned carts – whatever it is,Skills Mentor have the knowledge, experience and creativity you will need to step ahead of the competition.

Book a complimentary consultation with one of our e-commerce experts to discuss progressing your e-commerce journey.