How To Start An eCommerce Business – Beginners Guide

Running a business has evolved a lot due to the introduction of many online resources. As a beginner, starting an eCommerce business can be a little overwhelming.

The industry has grown a lot and there are nearly 26.5 million online commerce businesses out there. The competition is fierce, and you have to get a good start. This beginner’s guide is going to help you know how to start an eCommerce business as a newbie. Let’s start.

An eCommerce business is a company that sells products or services on different online platforms. It can be a website, social media, an application, or any other online marketplace. The main deal with the customers is done online.

As a company, you receive orders and payments via the Internet. After that, products are sent to customers via a physical delivery system. These businesses can be large and small. They utilize different marketing methods to reach out to customers.

To start an eCommerce business, here are five steps to learn and keep in mind to start your eCommerce business.

Step 1 – Evaluate Your Idea

As a beginner, it’s important to evaluate your business idea. Many newbies get inspired by watching a few eCommerce gurus on YouTube and come up with a baseless idea. That’s not how it all works. You have to evaluate different aspects of the idea properly. 

For example, the most basic component that needs to be evaluated is what products to sell. Also, know whether or not people are going to buy it regularly. Then, understand your end goal. Evaluating a plan in this way will help make sure you go on the right business path and be successful.

Step 2 – Manufacture Or Source Products

Once the whole idea has been evaluated, you know what type of product you’re going to sell to the customer. Picking the product is only half part.

You also need to know how you’re going to source. Given the size of the market, many manufacturers let professionals buy items in large quantities with ease and resell them online. Different options are available for sourcing and some of them are:

1 – Reselling

You can resell products by purchasing them in bulk. It involves finding products from somewhere else and then selling them to end customers through online business. You can use online directories to find out these products. It’s a proper product hunting procedure where you need to find high-demand products and selling vendors.

A simple and most popular example is purchasing something in bulk from Alibaba and selling it unit-wise on Amazon.

2 – Manufacturing

People who have their own idea of a product tend to manufacture it by themselves. In such a case, building a manufacturing unit is necessary. It can be a small workshop or a factory for production. After production, these products are stored in warehouses from where they go direct to customers.

3 – Dropshipping

Using the drop shipping method is also popular. Here, people take orders from clients and send them products from a source directly.

It does not require to store these products in the warehouse. However, detailed product hunting is required here as well. There are a lot of online tools people use to perform hunting such as Helium 10 and Keepa.

Step 3 – Pick An Online Selling Channel

Picking an online selling channel is equally important as picking the product. A channel can make or break your entire eCommerce business. There are a lot of online channels available that can be used for selling your products. 

However, the following ones are used the most:

• Amazon
• Shopify
• Social Media apps
• Personal websites

Each platform has an entirely different selling and purchasing process. So, it’s important to understand your idea’s requirements before picking the channel. The following points can help you with that:

• Understanding the nature of the product
• Understanding the audience type you need to reach out to.
• Knowing the applied rules and regulations of the channel within your region.
• Understanding the applied fees and commissions.

Step 4 – Set Up The Business

After selecting the platform, it’s time to set up a shop on it. Again, each platform allows shop settings differently. According to the platforms discussed in the section above, here’s how to set up a business shop on them:

Amazon:

• Setting up a seller account on Amazon can be difficult.
• First, pick an account type such as Individual or Professional.
• Then, create an account on the website.
• You will have to provide information about things like your bank account, internationally chargeable credit card, etc.
• Then, list products according to the guidelines and start selling.

Shopify:

• Shopify also requires a detailed process of selling. Here’s the summary:
• First, sign up for an account.
• Then, pick a channel through which you’ll sell products.
• It can be a Shopify store or your own website.
• After that, provide detailed payment information.
• Now, list your products and start selling.

Social Media Apps:

Setting up businesses on social media apps is the easiest. They offer you full freedom and usually require very little information. The exact method varies according to the site’s nature. However, this is what happens in general:

• Set up a normal account.
• Then, connect or convert it to a business account.
• List products and payment information.
• Take orders and deliver goods.

Personal websites:

Selling through a personal eCommerce website can be a little hard. It requires a lot of effort to reach out to customers through an individual site. But if things are done the right way, it can be very profitable.

• First, create a website using a website builder like WordPress.
• Then, purchase a hosting domain that suits your site’s business needs.
• Customize the layout and list the products.
• Provide necessary data like billing information and start selling.

Creating accounts on platforms is easy. However, the product listing and optimization process can be difficult. So, try to follow these tips:

• Use attractive images of products.
• Add optimized description.
• Apply SEO practices while setting up eCommerce websites
• Make the site user-friendly
• Add multiple payment methods

Step 5 – Market The Business

As I mentioned earlier, competition is fierce in the field of eCommerce. Besides knowing how to start an eCommerce business, you also have to market it.

The best way to market is using Digital Marketing. Many e-commerce experts have social media handles, and they use these platforms to attract more audiences.

Some choose to run an email marketing campaign. In simple words, the nature of your business dictates what type of marketing methods to use. If you’re unsure, hiring a marketing specialist can be of use.

Although the methods are different, a general marketing procedure is discussed below:

• Set proper goals like reaching out to a certain number of customers in a month.
• Pick a social media platform that can market the business best. For example, marketing fashion products on Instagram can be helpful.
• Now, make persuasive and attractive content that attracts the audience.
• Keep on posting regularly and monitor the results.
• Make improvements in the plan if you’re not getting the required results.

Many newbies want to know how to start an eCommerce business since it offers good profit. There are a lot of different points a person needs to consider starting such a business.

However, following a simple step-by-step process can make things easier. First, evaluate your idea entirely. Then, find a product source and pick a platform. Then, set up your shop and start marketing and running the business.