The emergence of e-commerce sites and the evolution of online retail stores have transformed the customers' shopping experience. Today they can shop from the comfort of their homes and get the products right at their doorstep.
The online shopping arena has witnessed colossal growth in recent years. Pampering shoppers with an extensive range of top brands, affordable prices, attractive discounts, and offers, it is scoring high even during the pandemic crisis.
The e-commerce industry is getting fueled by Ecommerce Software with the latest digital transformation trends such as automated checkout, use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, social media platforms, payment gateway, and many more to accelerate further.
Are you curious to know more about this growing industry? Are you planning to be a part of this business? Setting up an ecommerce brand needs to be a bit systematic and this blog focuses on sharing a few must-know tips that will help you build and grow your ecommerce brand smoothly.
What is an ECommerce Site?
Ecommerce business is a process of digitally purchasing and selling products or services through the internet. If defined colloquially, it refers to buying an item or an online service with the help of a digital payment method. Online businesses have evolved with the progress of e-commerce sites.
Traditionally, e-commerce business models have targeted four types of markets. These include-
- Business to consumer (B2C): Considered the most popular e-commerce model, B2C means the sale occurs between a business and a consumer. For example, you are buying any product from an online retailer.
- Business to business (B2B): B2B e-commerce refers to one business selling goods and services to another business. For instance, a manufacturer sells ready-to-use products to a wholesaler or a distributor, and then the distributor sells the products to a retailer.
- Direct to Consumer (D2C): It is considered the newest ecommerce model where a brand directly sells products to its customers without going through a distributor or a retailer. All types of subscriptions for any package or availing a service comes under D2C marketing. Also, if companies sell their products through social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram, it is considered D2C commerce.
- Consumer to consumer (C2C): This type of e-commerce model showcases goods and services from one consumer to another. Popular e-commerce sites which demonstrate this type of selling are eBay, Etsy, and Fiverr.
- Consumer to business (C2B): In this e-commerce model, an individual directly sells their products or services to a business organization. For example, C2B includes influencers offering exposure, consultants, freelance writing.
Advantages of an Ecommerce Business
Ever since the advent, there has been much hype about the e-commerce business. Today consumers are prioritizing e-commerce sites over traditional brick-and-mortar stores, while retail shops are going online. Do you know the reason why? Let’s find out.
- You can browse several things at once. You have to spend less time buying the items. Plus, you also get a list of those particular products that are not available in the local stores.
- E-commerce sites help you to store specific information about your potential customers. You can use this information to send personalized messages and notifications.
- It provides customers with complete descriptions of the product that they are searching for. The description includes product features, manufacturing date, specific details, price, images, videos, and expected delivery date on a particular location.
- One of the most significant advantages that keep sellers interested in online sites is total cost reduction. To maintain a physical store, a seller has to spend money on various areas. However, for an e-commerce business, the money spent on store upkeep can be easily reduced. This is highly beneficial, especially for individual business owners and small-scale sellers.
- The sellers don’t have to pay additional costs for advertising or promoting their products. They can easily avail the cost-effective marketing or advertising plan of the e-commerce site.
- Ecommerce sites are easily accessible 24x7. Thus, it provides leverage to customers to shop anytime and anywhere.
- The premium ecommerce sites are integrated with the automated inventory management system or an advanced order management tool and POS software, which tracks inventory in real-time and updates the order status instantly.
- Top ecommerce sites have their own logistics system and delivery management solutions to deliver goods and services within the estimated time.
- By integrating SEO tools and effective digital marketing strategies, you can quickly escalate your customer base.
- Ecommerce sites can help you to forecast the market demand with data analysis systems and predictive analytics solutions.
Factors to Consider When Creating an Ecommerce Site
If you want to start a new e-commerce business but do not know where to start from, do not worry more because we have got you covered. Please go through the critical checklist to embark on your online business journey.
Choose your business niche.
The first key challenge for anyone who wants to start an e-commerce store is to choose their business niche. People spend weeks trying what they want to do but end up getting nothing.
So before you choose your business niche, ask yourself these questions:
- Which product you are most passionate about.
- What are the fields of your expertise?
- What are your strengths?
Analyze the market and your potential competitors. Reflect on how you can boost your sales more than others. You can also ask for help from someone who has expertise in this field.
Selecting the Product
Choosing the right product is also of utmost importance. You should ponder over the product you want to sell and on your ability on how you can sell it. Choose products that are best fit for growing markets, which can fulfill your customers' needs. Also, most importantly, the product should be something that should be exciting to you.
Online branding strategy
It would help if you distinguish your brand from your competitors, and the best way to do so is by great branding. Try to create a brand that forges a relationship with its customers. It would help if you always focus on how you present your products online, which is crucial from day one. Try to invest in a good branding technique. Connect with your customers and be honest with them, but do not forget to add your unique quirkiness. Also, understand that creating a great branding strategy from scratch can be a difficult task, therefore take your time and try to experiment and improve as you go.
Platform selection
Choosing the right online platform is essential for the growth of your e-commerce store.
A good e-commerce platform provides powerful marketing options, search engine optimizations, catalog management, and various other options. So, choose the venue that will give you all.
Pre-hype before launch
Now that you have selected your business niche, chosen your products, analyzed the market, and set up your website but haven’t created hype for the product, then be prepared to face some downhills as soon as you launch.
However, there are a few tactics that you can use to boost your sales as soon as you go online.
- Send out free samples.
- Reach out to influencers for promotion or use different social media platforms to showcase your work.
- Try to get shoutouts or post giveaways frequently.
Now there you go; once your e-commerce store is all developed, you are all set to rock and roll. You are ready to take the online business and generate whopping sales.
But remember, there will always be minute glitches when you take your business online, and you might not even get the sales you want, but do not worry; everything will soon fall into place. The success of an e-commerce store is not dependent on the sales you generate but on the other things that we often tend to ignore.
You will notice automatic sales generation if you have done proper market research with the constant innovation of product marketing and branding.
Hence, if you wish to start an e-commerce site, make sure you try your best to deal with setbacks.
Top ECommerce Sites That Are Doing Exceptionally Well
The following section focuses on top-notch e-commerce giants that have already created a stature in the market. There is no denying that these sites are amidst the topmost visited platforms by the customers.
Amazon
There is no doubt that Amazon is indeed one of the world’s largest and most popular ecommerce sites. What started as an online bookstore, Amazon has now expanded in all sorts of different verticals, including home goods, electronics, fashion, and more. However, one of the most successful and innovative contributions of this e-commerce giant has to be Amazon Prime, a subscription service. The company has continued adding different benefits for its customers and now has more than 200 million worldwide members as of the first quarter of 2021. With its Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA), Amazon also now allows merchants to use their warehouses, center networks, logistic capabilities, and delivery systems.
eBay
eBay started its online journey as an online auction house in the 90s, which was used to sell collectibles and other goods. The ecommerce site keeps on adding new items to its inventory, and most of the products are sold at a fixed price. eBay has been trying to take the path led by Amazon. It has been encouraging its sellers to provide fast shipping with several other reforms. The company combines product listings from the sellers and launched the Best Price Guarantee scheme, which offers the customers a hefty rebate if they found a similar listing on any other competitor's websites.
Walmart
Considered one of the world's most giant brick-and-mortar retailers, Walmart has been investing heavily in its e-commerce portals over the past few years. In 2016, the company acquired Jet.com and some other US-based e-commerce companies, which rapidly helped increase its e-commerce business. Due to its efforts, Walmart has generated massive sales online in just one year. Walmart also acquired a stake in Flipkart, one of India's most leading e-commerce companies.
In addition to these, there are a few more premier ecommerce sites and marketplaces such as Alibaba, Costco, etc. In contrast, online retailers have also started selling their products on Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Pinterest. This is expanding the ecommerce market by and large.
Some of the business niches that can Prove to be a Goldmine for e-commerce sites
With ecommerce, anything can be brought online, and with the convenience of shopping 24*7, it is essential to tap into the right product, service, or business niche that will help you grow your e-commerce store. Some of the most profitable sectors are-
Smart home devices
With the increase in the usage of AI technology, the future is not far away, where all devices like air-conditioners, lights, door locks, etc., would be connected to the internet. You might think that this is fiction, but this is what reality looks like. Home automation and smart devices have been massive over the past few years, and therefore this niche is considered one of the biggest potential markets.
Fitness programs and sports nutrition
Gone are the days when only young males were regular gym visitors. Today, almost everyone, from baby boomers to millennials, has been bitten by the fitness bug. It is one of the enormous markets for e-commerce is fitness programs. Specialized workout programs online or apparel and nutrition related to fitness are considered the best-selling products each year.
Fresh meal delivery and online groceries
With the hectic urban lifestyle, global pandemic, and the lack of time to go out or cook meals, food deliveries, and online groceries market are booming over the past few years. Also, by focusing on nutritional meals, you can win over customers who want a fresh and healthy diet but don't find time to cook. Gourmet meal kits have been increasingly popular too. These usually include pre-measured ingredients to a recipe card and have been a big hit over the years.
Niche fashion
Fashion retail is one of the crowdest sectors in the e-commerce space, yet niche fashion is a booming industry. Niche fashion is defined as catering to different, hard to find or hard-to-fit fashion needs. For example, minimal fashion, only black clothing, sustainable fashion, indie-fusion, gothic wear, thrift shipping, or casual workwear are some of the popular categories of this industry.
Selling second-hand products
A vast audience does not mind using second-hand products, especially if they are in good condition and available at a reasonable price. The market for selling second-hand products has been growing over the past few years. The items that are generally traded are clothes, jewelry, or furniture. However, it is recommended that before you start your full-fledged e-commerce store for this site, you should first experiment locally.
Online educational courses
Online educational courses are another growing sector that you can look into. You can build online shops to create and sell courses or study materials to people or students. Many websites provide online educational courses, but the demand is relatively high for online courses to help flourish your business.
Critical Factors to Consider While Investing In E-commerce Ventures
The blog has already highlighted the top e-commerce markets that will gain prominence in the upcoming years. But it is also essential to discuss the critical factors to consider while investing in e-commerce ventures. It helps you to strategize a plan accordingly. It also acts as a preventive measure before you invest.
Do Your Due Diligence And Thorough Market Research
You are investing a considerable amount of money in the business. Therefore you must make sure that your money is going for the right cause. Firstly determine whether the sales are sustainable or not, i.e., whether the products have sufficient consumer demand. You can quickly conduct a thorough market analysis using market research software. Explore everything about the store about how to enhance sales and plan for maximum customer retention. The SEO tactics and tools enable you to improve website traffic. Pay attention to customer reviews and feedback. Consult with analysts if you need to.
If you are going to take over an e-commerce site, you must look through the seller's point of view.
Sellers usually overvalue their eCommerce site because they are attached to it, but you should not shy away from it. If you are acquiring an e-commerce site, get comprehensive details about it, i.e., its past sales history, background, potential customers, and how the owner has managed the sellers and online business. You also need to know about the branding process and what marketing strategies the site followed previously.
And lastly, check on how you can improve the business.
You can consider the e-commerce purchase as profitable if it proves productive for long-term investments or the future scale business. It might be that the site you are investing in has good sales, but due to a lack of marketing, you cannot reach a larger audience. Work on that aspect, then. Try to improve your marketing scheme. Focus on sharing your business far and wide.
You must remember that there is always a scope for improvement. The pool of e-commerce buyers is continuously expanding, which is booming the online business market. Thus, you should always search for new opportunities to come your way. But you must stay one step ahead of the competition to gain an edge over others.
Conclusion
Hopefully, the article has highlighted all the nitty-gritty of the growing e-commerce world. But what one knows is just the tip of the iceberg. Hence, it is crucial to remain cautious of the potentials and critically analyze the risk factors.
The best part is that ecommerce software in alignment with futuristic technologies significantly empowers the e-commerce business to stay abreast with the latest market trends, create automated campaigns, and digitize the purchase and sales process.
So, if you want to streamline your order management, simplify product listing, and automate repetitive tasks, then explore the free and open source ecommerce software solutions. The popular tools include NetSuite SuiteCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento Community Edition, OpenCart, and many more. Also, don’t forget to read the buyer’s guide to find out exclusive features, core benefits, and other details about the software.
