Must-Know Tips for Starting a Successful eCommerce Business

eCommerce businesses have the potential to reach more customers than ever, exponentially grow a business, and work from anywhere. The possibilities and benefits of running an eCommerce business are limitless, but getting started can be a scary process. Creating an online business is an exciting and rewarding process, but it takes substantial resources to get off the ground. 

 No matter how many businesses you have run or what your experience level is, starting a new eCommerce business is the most challenging part. The choices you make when launching your business have a profound impact on how you can manage and scale it later down the road. Luckily, there are some proven strategies you can use to efficiently start your online business. In this post, we will share our must-know secrets for properly starting your online business.  

Define Your Audience First

Before you can begin selling online, you must have something to sell. Many times, people focus on finding the products and then connecting with the ideal audience. To find the most success and nail product/market fit, you should actually start with the customer first. Businesses connect people with a common interest or need (market) to a product that will benefit them (product). The better the match between product and market, or the better the fit, the more successful the business tends to be. Start with your audience and really dive into their profile. Learn what products that group would need to solve their daily pain points, and then source your products. 

 Build Your Audience

It will be much easier to sell your products to your ideal audience if you have already gotten their attention. Before you are ready to sell, start building your audience. Focus on the audience that fits your niche and products so you can transform them into customers when the time is right. To do this, you must offer value to the audience. You can help connect them to like-minded people, and you can deliver interesting informative content. Collect emails and build an email list to send your content to. Some of the most-used strategies for content include:

• Blogs (listicles, how-tos, checklists)
• Podcasts
• Newsletters
• eBook
• Whitepaper 
• Social media account

A Presence for Your Online Business

In order to run an online business, you will need to have an online presence. Eventually, you will need a website for your eCommerce store. However, a landing page is a great starting point. A landing page is a one-page site that is an introduction to your online business. Make sure to include your business’ name, your CTA, an email capture field, and links to your social media. Only create a full-blown, multi-page website when you are ready to sell. 

 Do Not Rush 

Starting a new eCommerce business is incredibly exciting, and you may be tempted to get things started as soon as possible. Rushing your website launch is one the biggest mistakes you can make, and nearly always leads to an unsuccessful eCommerce business. You must have a firm grasp on the following before launching:

• SEO
• Content marketing
• Social media
• Paid ads
• Fulfillment

Customer-Centric Approach

One of the biggest challenges for eCommerce is that your customers can’t see or feel products in-person before buying. To build the trust of your customers and ensure their satisfaction, you must run your business with a customer-centric mindset. Some examples include:

• Appropriate pricing
• Fast and inexpensive (or free) shipping
• Streamlined checkout process
• Including reviews and FAQs on product pages
• Making it easy to get in touch with customer service 

 Keep Mobile in Mind 

Mobile is absolutely critical for eCommerce in 2020. More and more consumers search and shop on mobile devices. It is imperative that your eCommerce business is designed with mobile use in mind. Make sure that your site is optimized for mobile and offers a comfortable user experience via mobile. 

Social Media Savvy 

Social media is a huge part of any modern business. It’s an excellent way to see into your customers’ lives, engage them, and communicate with them. Work closely with social media, even if you have a social media manager or marketing team. Additionally, add social elements to your eCommerce site. For example, allow customers to use social login options, add product reviews, and share testimonials. Shout out your own social media handles and encourage customers to follow you as well!

 Test and Respond

Before and after launching, testing is crucial. You should test every aspect of your business that you can and collect customer information. Testing and analytics are important investments that will save you in the long run. Listen to the data to determine what strategies work and which do not. Focus on A/B testing to directly compare options. Focus on the “why” behind the things that work and constantly refine your strategies according to the data you collect. 

 Focus on SEO

eCommerce is a very crowded, competitive space. Staying on top of SEO ensures you stand out and rank high in Google search results, which boosts your exposure and website traffic. SEO is not an afterthought, it should be incorporated into your website and content marketing from day one. 

Simplify Operations

Business operations like listings and order fulfillment can be overwhelming. When starting a new business, you may not know where to begin with these processes, or how to manage them effectively. That’s where we come in. Listing Mirror is the #1 multi-channel product listing software here to help you simplify listing data management, order fulfillment, inventory syncing, and warehouse management. Take the stress out of managing your eCommerce store, and easily transition to selling on multiple channels so you can experience maximum growth. 

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