Any activity in the sale, purchase, promotion, distribution of goods and services on the Internet is e-commerce.
When deciding to create your own Internet store, you should take into account the needs of future customers in advance, build both a proposal and a pricing strategy for their needs and interests, and solve delivery and storage issues in advance. There are several unique e-commerce business models that are worth using to create and grow your business. This is primarily dropshipping, wholesale trade, in-house production, sale of digital products, direct sales and trading by "subscription."
To start an online business, first of all, you need to choose a product and a niche in which you will work, come up with a company name, understand who you will sell the product to, create an online store and solve many organizational issues in advance, for example, choose the accounting and payment procedure . All this is easier to do in one system, for example, on the platform for automating online trading processes Step Link.
Product: selection and evaluation
What is the best trade? What can you sell directly to the consumer? Very often, the answer to these questions is the most numerous parts, and not only, of online business. You can start with something widely known, and then narrow down the offer to a specific niche, focus of effort, time, energy and media, and the most profitable product.
Starting your own business and building your brand will be much easier if you take on a responsibility that you are passionate about or understand. Also explore ideas. Are you going to manufacture the product yourself or buy it in bulk? Maybe you should start with dropshipping?
Conduct a study of goods, try to understand how much they are needed now on the market, who will buy them, how often and in what quantity. To do this, it will be easiest to steer the Step Link e-commerce process automation platform, where you can not only analyze products by their significant and competitive advantages (there are almost 18,000 of them on the site), but also learn in detail about who places it - more than 860 vendors. All of them matter according to the highest reputational and quality evaluation criteria.
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Observing your competitors will help you anticipate market changes, identify new requirements, and adopt successful tactics.
You can analyze manifestations - for example, understand how a competitor appears and promotes his site, how he advertises his Internet store. You can study his approach to marketing in general. Already at this stage, it is worth starting work with the Step Link platform by ordering a marketing analysis and developing a strategy for promoting your business. The assembled analyst Step Link company and a clearly defined plan, the presence, for your online business, is a good help and a competitive advantage, even at the stage of creating it.
Choosing a domain name
Think carefully about the company name and domain name to avoid double meanings. The domain name or URL of your online store should reflect or at least partially emphasize your business. It is better that it be casual, memorable and understandable, easy to say out loud.
Your own online store
Today it is quite easy, without unnecessary costs and stress, to create your own online store. The Step Link platform offers e-commerce solutions that have all the tools you need to create an online store, automate product feeds, checkout, manage sales. You can start working on the Step Link platform for free, and later choose a tariff that suits you.
Do not forget that the site must have a page with information "about the company", the rules of your store, shipping, return and privacy policy, Contact Information.
Payments
There are several ways to start accepting online payments, but the easiest way to do this is with the Step Link e-commerce platform, which is integrated with PayPal, Visa, Mastercard online payment systems.
Credit cards are the most popular and familiar payment method, but you should also pay attention to other payment systems, for the client it can be valuable, and it is important for the seller to provide maximum payment options on their website. PayPal is very popular, and digital wallet solutions like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Visa Checkout, and Masterpass provide a quick alternative for those who don't want to enter their credit card number while shopping.
Delivery methods and order processing systems
Shipping is the backbone and important part of e-commerce. Since the client places an order on the Internet, when starting a business, you will need to decide on the question: at whose expense and how will the delivery of the purchased goods take place? Whether the seller will draw it up or, using the dropshipping business model, this will be done by the counterparty - the supplier of the goods.
Although free shipping is incredibly popular in e-commerce as part of a marketing strategy, if this is your responsibility, you need to understand in advance how you will compensate for these costs. Therefore, the easiest way is to register on the Step Link platform and use the well-known and proven delivery systems integrated into it: DPS, DHL, TNT, FedEx.
The system built into Step Link CRM simplifies order processing and systematizes work with clients in further sales and support work.
Promotion in e-commerce
E-commerce sites are usually promoted in a complex way: in social networks, via email, through search engine optimization and paid advertising. Promotions, discounts on goods work well.
Search engine optimization helps new customers find your website through searches on Google, Bing, and other systems. You can improve SEO performance and site popularity by posting interesting material for your target audience. The text of such an article can, neatly and unobtrusively, include high-frequency and mid-frequency keywords - requests for which the buyer is looking for a particular product.
Choosing a business model
There are several main systems by which it will be profitable to work on the Internet in 2022, the most widespread models are:
- B2B. Business to business - commercial activities between business representatives, such as manufacturers and wholesalers or wholesalers and retailers;
- B2C. Business to consumers - commercial relations between business and consumer;
- C2C. Consumer to consumers - commercial relations between individuals, when a consumer sells a product or service to another consumer;
- C2B. Consumer to business - commercial relations in which the consumer sells the products or services produced by him to the business;
- B2G. Business to government - work with tenders or public procurement.
The Step Link platform takes care of the bulk of the work and automates most of the e-commerce processes. This allows the entrepreneur, getting rid of the routine, to focus on developing their own business. All products placed on the Step Link platform undergo constant technical moderation, information is updated constantly (from 5 minutes). All clients receive support and assistance in learning online sales and e-commerce in general.
So, the beginning of any business, and in general, the beginning of any serious business, often seems like a difficult task and frightens with the unknown. Don't worry, after you choose an affordable and modern e-commerce platform, working and selling online will become easier and simpler.