Online businesses can sound easy – find a product, create a website and build a brand. When you put it like that, anyone can do it and it’s true but there are ways in which you can boost your chances. To be successful, a lot of work is required and here we’ll take a look at five things to get in place to help in 2017.
Find a niche
Whatever you sell, there is mega competition from all corners of the worldwide web. Get a head start in this by going for a niche category, steering clear of some of the bigger players, and honing in on a certain product. By doing this you can corner the market and focus on serving the customer. Check out the wedding linen site Bumblebee Linens for a good example of this.
Don’t turn away from online marketplaces
The major marketplaces like Amazon and eBay may seem like somewhere you should keep your products away from. Why should I pay a commission just for them to sell my products? It’s a good question, but with Amazon improving annual sales by around a fifth each year, registering to be a vendor on there as well as having your own website is a two-pronged attack that will help you.
Get the website right
Of course, nothing is going to be sold direct from you without getting your website up and running. The easiest way to get cracking with an ecommerce platform is to us Shopify. This gives simple templates to build your brand just how you want it, for a monthly fee. If you are going belts and braces then a web design company could be the right option, but this will do to get things moving.
Focus on service
Once you have got the website up and running then focusing on the service you give will offer huge benefits. User experience on the pages across your site is key – as is sorting the cart at the end – but offline you have to be focused too. Customers need the ability to contact you, whether that’s through email or on the phone to deal with any questions or queries quickly and efficiently.
All in the delivery
On top of that, it’s important that any parcels or packages are delivered correctly and within the timeframes you want. To do this best it’s good to partner up with a courier company who will be able to give you the most cost-effective option when it comes to delivering – whether that’s next day, standard or even same day. Getting your products to the final destination efficiently and without incident is huge when building a client base in this market.