"If your business is not on the internet, then your business is out of business.” – Bill Gates
Many entrepreneurs in the present age have embraced ecommerce but they still do not know how to use the internet to increase their sales. The few entrepreneurs who have achieved ecommerce success used a three-part secret formula through which they focused on getting the right product at a reasonable price and used a platform that offers an all-inclusive and user-friendly experience.
Product
Many factors go into selecting the best product; a recent study has shown that there are millions of products being added to the market on an annual basis with a failure rate of 85% to 95%. The following processes aid you in choosing the product which is most fitting and which will have the lowest failure rate.
Assessment
Sit down with your team, brainstorm, and analyze the internal as well as the external factors which will influence the product choosing process, and you can then strategize on how to capitalize on the positives and solve the negatives with just two or more products. Starting small and testing the market’s demand on such items is imperative in order to avoid great losses. In addition, a SWOT analysis would be very useful at this stage.
Strategy
This phase serves as the tool for generating the inspiration and motivation to sell online. Use your assessment tests to identify the product ideas that leverage on the strengths and opportunities and level out the weaknesses and threats.
Selection
With the data gathered from the previous phases, you can now settle down, shortlist, and evaluate the most viable product ideas for your ecommerce website. At this phase, you will have to start validating the logistics that will propel your product towards success by identifying your target audience.
Implementation
By now, you’ve already decided on the products you’ll be selling, their features, and their benefits to your prospective clients. The main activity under this phase is to put all of your decisions into a well-devised plan. You will need to focus on the process of acquiring your inventory from suppliers on one end and shipping your orders to the customers on the other end.
90% of successful ecommerce entrepreneurs started by focusing on 5 to 10 niche products on which they did separate tests to find out their customers’ feedback to ultimately improve their online stores.
Price
Now that you have the perfect product for your ecommerce site, designating your prices is the next essential subject to tackle. Charles Toftoy, an associate professor at George Washington University School of Management Science, indicates that pricing is part art and part science; you will have to strike the perfect balance before you attach a price tag on the product.
There are hundreds of pricing strategies in ecommerce entrepreneurship, but there is no guarantee that they will be a perfect fit for your business. Remember, the best price should be high enough to make a profit, and low enough to entice the customer into making a purchase.
Underpricing
Most online merchants tend to underprice their products when their business is in its blossoming phase or when the economy is down. This action might backfire on your business since customers want to feel that they are getting their money’s worth, in other words, they want to feel that they’re buying a valuable product that will fulfill their needs for an extended period of time.
Overpricing
Overpricing your products is also detrimental to your ecommerce business since your customers will always compare your prices to your competitors’. Refrain from quoting a price beyond your customers’ desire and ability to pay and put yourself in your clients’ shoes in order to be brutally honest about the price and understand how the market would react when faced with this cost.
Make sure you conduct a well-detailed study of the market, costs, target revenue, competition, and the trends in order to find the best prices for your products. Don’t forget to review these prices every now and then to adjust them according to the market status and demands.
Platform
Ecommerce entrepreneurs have the option of building an entire website from scratch or going with a platform which offers an empty and customizable framework. Either way, merchants have to resort to web developers to help them create a powerful, bug-free website. Some platforms, such as Ecomz, give you the chance to customize the website on your own through a user-friendly process but it’s always a good idea to hire a professional.
Bottom line is, when confused between platforms, look for these essential settings:
Hosted vs Self-hosted
Ecommerce platforms are divided into 2 different categories:
Self-hosted platforms, such as Magento, provide the user with the ability to modify the store in almost any way preferred however, this solution can be too technical for the unexperienced merchant. In other words, to create your online business through this type of platforms, you’ll need a dedicated team of experts as well as a special team for support which can prove extremely costly. That’s not all, it’s mandatory to obtain PCI compliance in order to accept online payments.
On the other hand, hosted platforms are taking the world by storm with all the benefits found in a self-hosted platform but without all the hassle and the high cost. Advanced platforms, such as ecomz, offer immense customization capabilities through the theme and source code editors but eliminate the need for constant updates, security checks, and support commonly found in the other category. Moreover, all these services come at a relatively low cost that’s why all online merchants, regardless of their expertise in this field, should choose a proven technology in order to start their businesses on solid grounds.
Cost
Every merchant should have a complete understanding of the costs that will arise from his online business ventures in order to identify how sustainable they are. Most platforms charge monthly subscriptions, hosting fees, transaction fees, fixed and recurrent costs for purchasing features…
The size of the business plays an important role as well, startups and small businesses can own an online business for free or pay 100$ per month on average whereas large businesses and established brands might be subject to thousands of dollars in add-ons and personnel costs.
If pricing is an issue for you then head over to ecomz.com where you you’ll be able to choose between plans that range from freemium to enterprise.
Customization
Full customization support is of utmost importance! Ideally, all business owners should look for built-in theme and source code editors when they’re on the hunt for the perfect platform for their online store. In addition, these tools should be user-friendly and feature-rich to help you stand out in this immensely competitive field.
Ecomz, for example, offers built-in and easy to use customizing tools which allow you to build your own store from scratch. Additionally, you can request a quote and let their team of experts create a stunning ecommerce website for you.
Advanced features
This is a vital option to look for before starting the process of building an online store. Advanced features are what differentiate your store from countless others by helping you scale and expand. Multicurrency, multilingual, payment, and shipping solutions, among others, are key factors that help push a store forward.
Keep in mind that these features should be easy to use, so it’s highly advised that you conduct a detailed research on the matter. Ecomz did its own research, visit our features’ page and you will find all the friendly apps you’ll ever need.
Integrations
Successful online businesses depend on the automation within the platform alongside the quality level of its integrations. The most important of these are: order fulfillment, payment and shipment integrations, returns and refunds, reporting and analytical systems…
With ecomz you’ll find high-level integrations with worldwide leading partners such as PayPal and PayTabs for payment, Aramex and FedEx for shipping, and countless others which will greatly improve your business.
Always have the product in mind when choosing the platform and when you do find it, make sure to experiment with it to know if it’s truly suitable for your needs.
So there you have it, the three-pronged secret formula for ecommerce success. It will not work instantly, but you need to apply the lessons learned here until you have the right product, with the best price, on the most advanced platform capable of meeting the demands of your business. Don’t forget that at the end of the day, you’re selling images and content so make sure your business is built on a high-end platform.
.svg)
Join the discussion!