How To Start an Ecommerce Business in 2023 (abdelillah berradi)
If you’re a skilled entrepreneur or craftsperson, you’ve probably dreamed of starting your own ecommerce store. But this is no easy feat. In this article, you’ll discover each step in the process of starting an ecommerce business, and when to expect to see profitability.
Table of contents
⦁ Learn how to start an ecommerce business
⦁ Calculate ecommerce business start up costs
⦁ Understand profitability, audience and product
How to start an ecommerce business
⦁ Find product opportunities and choose what to sell
⦁ Thoroughly research your competition and write a business plan
⦁ Choose a logo and name and set up your online store
⦁ Choose your shipping strategy and set sales and marketing goals
⦁ Launch your business
⦁ Find product opportunities and choose what to sell
1 - Finding a product to sell
The first step to building an e-commerce store is knowing what products you want to sell direct-to-consumer. This often is the most challenging part of starting a new online business. In this section, we’ll highlight strategies you
can use to find product opportunities, explore the best places to look for product ideas, and finally, look at trending e-commerce products to consider.
Find a Product to Sell: 12 Strategies for Finding Your First Profitable Product
Solve a customer pain point
Appeal to enthusiastic hobbyists
Go with your personal passion
Consider your professional experience
Capitalize on trends early
Read customer reviews on existing products
Find product opportunities in keywords
Litmus test before you launch
Browse what’s trending on online marketplaces
Research products with higher profit margins
Start your search with related products
Always be on the lookout
Product Ideas: 17 Trending Products to Sell in 2023
Start with what you have
Pay attention to trends in your local community
Consult online consumer trend publications
Get inspired by industry leaders
Use product trend discovery sites
Take a look at social curation sites
Peruse B2B wholesale marketplaces
Browse online consumer marketplaces
Look through social forum communities
Search social media networks
Read on-site and third-party customer reviews
Review SEO analytics and insights
Read consumer lifestyle publications
Learn from your competitors
Create customer surveys
Crowdsource
Look to the past
29 Ideas for How to Start an Online Business in 2023
Start your own clothing line
Launch a dropshipping business
Sell your art online
Become a freelance writer, designer, or developer
Teach an online course
Flip your thrift store finds
Publish your own book
Start a blog
Become a virtual assistant
Try your hand at being an influencer
Build apps and websites
Launch a podcast
Become an affiliate marketer
Curate subscription boxes
Develop a niche product
Create handmade goods
Become a social media manager
Invest in real estate
Sell on marketplaces
Become a translator
Start an accounting or bookkeeping firm
Become an online fitness trainer
Create and sell NFTs
Start an online coaching business
Do voiceover work
Become an ad consultant
Build niche websites
Start a membership community
Promote sponsored posts on Instagram
What's the Best Ecommerce Platform for Your Business?
Shopify.com Wix.com BigCommerce.com WooCommerce.com PrestaShop.com
Squarespace.com BigCartel.com Weebly.com 3dcart.com Volusion.com OpenCart.com
Evaluating your idea
Once you have a product idea in mind, how do you know if it will sell? In this section, we’ll cover a few approaches that active entrepreneurs have used to validate their product ideas and potential market.
8 strategies to validate a product idea
Make some sales
Conduct competitive analysis
Research existing demand
Create a feedback survey
Start a crowdfunding campaign
Gauge interest on social media
Create a pre-launch landing page
Meet customers in person
The 10 Step Checklist for Finding Profitable, In-Demand Product Ideas
1. Convenience goods
Convenience goods are products that consumers frequently purchase with little thought or effort. These items are typically low-cost and widely available, making them easy to buy on the go.
Examples of a convenience product include:
Food
Drinks
Laundry detergent
Soap
Milk
Toothpaste
Because convenience goods are often purchased, they tend to be impulse buys—consumers may not carefully consider all their options before making a purchase.
Convenience goods advertising often emphasizes an item’s low price or limited availability to create a feeling of urgency or need. A grocery store, for instance, might put bread on sale at the entrance so customers will buy it.
Many businesses rely on convenience goods for reliable sales and profits. However, since they’re so widely available, businesses have difficulty differentiating their products.
Shopping goods
Shopping products are items bought less frequently. They are often more durable and expensive than convenience goods, and are geared toward a specific niche, like refrigerators or televisions.
There are two types of shipping products:
Homogeneous shopping products are items that are identical, or very similar, across different brands. For example, all televisions have a screen, a power cord, and an input for an antenna or cable.
Heterogenous shopping products are items that differ significantly from one brand to another. For example, some refrigerators have a water and ice dispenser built into the door, while others do not.
Other examples of shopping products are:
Smartphones
Airline tickets
Electronics
Furniture
Clothing
Washing machines
For example, when buying a new car, a shopper will look at different models to find the one with the best combination of price, fuel efficiency, safety features, and so on.
Shoppers compare products on multiple dimensions, so businesses must ensure their products stand out. The most effective way to do this is with effective marketing and branding highlighting the product’s most attractive features. A business should also ensure its products are easily bought and accessible.
2. Specialty goods
The consumer perceives specialty goods as something different and unique from other products. Because they offer something no other product can, they are worth the consumer’s premium price.
Examples of specialty goods include:
Luxury cards
Professional cameras
Designer clothing
To convince consumers that their specialty products are worth the price, businesses must create a strong brand identity. This involves differentiating the product, creating a sense of exclusivity, and promoting its unique features.
3. Unsought goods
Unsought products are goods that the consumer does not know about or does not think to buy. They are often expensive, risky, or complicated products. Examples include:
Funeral services
Life insurance
Car repairs
Because unsought goods are not top of mind for consumers, businesses must work harder to generate interest and awareness. They can do this through marketing campaigns, personal selling, and other forms of advertising.
Unsought goods often require more explanation than other types of products. As such, businesses must ensure that their product is easy to understand and that potential customers know where to go for more information.
Types of industrial products
Unlike consumer products, industrial goods are made for industries. They are used in manufacturing or in maintaining and repairing machinery and equipment. Industrial products can be either raw materials or processed materials.
4. Raw materials
Raw materials are materials used in the production process of other products, but have not yet been processed. Raw materials can include metals, minerals, lumber, and petroleum.
You would use raw materials to create consumer products like:
Canned goods
Automobiles
Furniture
Construction materials
Paper
Plastics
Raw material costs can fluctuate based on supply and demand, so it’s important to keep an eye on the market. For example, copper prices have increased sharply over the past few years due to increased demand from China. This increased demand has led to higher prices for companies that use copper in their products.
5. Processed materials
Processed materials are those materials that have been refined or processed in some way to be used in the manufacturing process of other products. Processed materials can include steel, glass, plastics, and chemicals.
You use processed materials to create products like:
Computers
Televisions
Appliances
Processed materials often have a longer shelf life than raw materials because they have been through a manufacturing process that creates a more consistent product.
6. Capital goods
Goods and services used in production are capital goods. A capital good can be anything from machinery to major equipment to tools.
Raw materials and processed materials are needed to make capital goods. A computer, for instance, requires metals, glass, and plastic.
Once you have these materials, you have to put them together. Capital goods are the machines and equipment that assemble computers.
7. Intermediate goods
Intermediate goods are those products used in the manufacturing process of final goods, but are not themselves final goods. Intermediate goods can include parts and components used to produce a final product.
For example, salt is an intermediate good because it is used to produce many food and nonfood consumer goods, but is not itself a final product.
8. Component parts
A component part is what makes up a bigger system or product. Component parts can refer to anything from the parts that make up a machine to the raw materials used to make it.
One example of a component part is a circuit board. From computers to mobile phones, circuit boards are everywhere. Circuits are made up of various electronic components like transistors, resistors, and capacitors.
9. Accessory equipment
An accessory equipment is something that doesn’t really contribute to the core operation of a process or system, but improves its efficiency, safety, or quality. This could include conveyor belts, packaging machinery, storage units, or cranes in an industrial setting.
10. Operating supplies and services
A business’s operating supplies are what it needs to run. They’re used in production or maintenance. Operating supplies are things like paper for printing invoices or oil for lubricating machinery, for example.
Obtaining your product
After landing on a strong product idea, your next step is 몭iguring out where and how you’re going to obtain your products. The next four posts cover the various methods for acquiring your products, along with the pros and cons of each model.
How to Source Products for Your Online Store: Top Apps and Tips
Find a dropshipping supplier
Buy from a wholesaler
Partner with a manufacturer
Attend trade shows
Make handcrafted products
Print on Demand: A Low-Risk Way to Sell Custom Products
A print on demand business is where where you work with a supplier of white-label products (like baseball hats or tote bags) to customize those products and sell them on a per-order basis under your own brand and with your own designs.
With print on demand, you don’t pay for the cost of the product until after you’ve actually sold it, so there’s no need to buy in bulk or hold any inventory yourself. As such, it continues to become a popular business model in the world of ecommerce.
Plus with print-on-demand services, everything after the sale, from digital printing to order fulfillment and shipping, is handled by your supplier.
A major additional benefit of print on demand is. that once you’ve set everything up, it takes only a few clicks to fulfill an order after you’ve made a sale.
2 - research your competition and write a business plan
Research your competition
You’ve found your product, evaluated its potential, and sourced a supplier. But before you get into that, you’ll need to thoroughly research your competition so you know what you’re up against and how you can differentiate your business from theirs.
How to Conduct a Competitive Analysis for Your Business
1. Select 7–10 competitors
To identify relevant competitors to include in your analysis, start with searches on Google, Amazon, and Alexa around your product and business idea. You want a mix of competitors that:
Sell similar types of products;
Have a similar business premise;
Market to similar and slightly different audience demographics;
Are both new to the marketplace and more experienced.
To put together a list of diverse competitors that will give you a good look at the competitive landscape that’s not too small and not too large, it’s a good idea to stick with a group of seven to 10 relevant competitors.
2. Create a spreadsheet
As you collect data on this group of competitors, keep it organized within a table or spreadsheet that can easily be shared and updated over time. Within this document, you’ll compare and contrast competitors based on different criteria such as:
Price range;
Product offerings;
Social media engagement;
Content used for lead generation;
First-time visitor offers;
Other traits that are worth comparing.
3. Determine competitor types
Starting with your list of competitors, begin your spreadsheet by categorizing each one as a primary or secondary competitor. This will help you better determine how they’ll relate to your business.
Direct competitors: or primary competitors, to your business that sell a similar product to a similar audience. Example: Nike and Adidas are primary competitors.
Indirect competitors; are secondary competitions that offer a high-end or low-end version of your product to a different audience. Example: Victoria’s Secret and Walmart are secondary competitors.
Tertiary competitors: are related brands that may market to the same audience but don’t sell the same products as you or directly compete with you in any way. They may be potential partners or future competitors if they choose to expand their business. Example: Gatorade and Under Armour.
4. Identify your competitors’ positioning
Positioning is the most persuasive marketing tool for a business. Good positioning helps you connect with a target audience and keeps them around longer. It also determines your messaging, values, and overall business strategy.
This is exactly why understanding your competitors positioning is so important. You can learn how to separate yourself and build a favorable reputation in your customers’ eyes. Differentiation also helps increase brand awareness and justify your prices, which impacts your bottom line.
Analyze these key channels to determine positioning and messaging:
Social media;
Press releases;
Website copy;
Events;
Interviews;
Product copy.
When identifying your competitors’ positioning, ask yourself the following questions:
What story do they express to customers?
How do they position their products?
What’s their company description?
How do they describe their unique value proposition?
Understand how competitors interact with their followers, customers, employees, partners, and shareholders. If you can pinpoint their communication framework, you’ll be able to position yourself differently and set yourself apart from competitors.
5. Determine competitive advantage and offerings
Once you understand your competitors’ messaging, take a look at their competitive advantage and product or service offer. The vast majority of succesful companies have a clear "secret sauce" compared to their competition.
For example, a fashion retailer’s competitive advantage may be high-quality, reasonably priced products and expedited shipping services. An online educator may have 20 years of experience teaching and working in their specific industry. Unique selling propositions like these are not easy to replicate and can drive brand name recognition for a business.
Take time to look at your competitors’ goods and services and compare them to your own. Read online reviews of your target audience to see why customers choose their company. It could be that they offer similar products at a lower price or have a focus on sustainability. Either way, you’ll want to learn their advantage and figure out how you can offer something better.
6. Understand how your competitors market their products
Marketing is the secret to the most successful ecommerce stores. A good offering is the cost of entry, but marketing takes you to the top. Unfortunately, most businesses fail to undertake a review of their competitors’ marketing. They assume that everyone is on Instagram, running Facebook ads, and optimizing their site for search.
And a lot of them are. But understanding how your competitors market their products takes a different perspective. You want to find out what offers they are promoting, how they are building and managing their contact lists, and how they are distributing content online.
Along with the research you’re doing through software and tools, it’s a good idea to get hands-on with your competitive research, too. Assume the role of a potential customer and check out what your competitors are doing in the marketing department.
You can do this by:
Signing up for their newsletters;
Subscribing to their blogs;
Following them on social media;
Abandoning a product in the shopping cart;
Purchasing a product.
As you execute these activities, be sure to document your findings with notes on each tactic you see. By studying their approaches to cart abandonment and looking at how they deliver support via social media (and beyond), you can spot interesting approaches your competition is using to attract more customers and to drive sales. The insights you gather during this stage can be incredibly helpful for your sales team specifically.
7. Conduct a SWOT analysis
Consider conducting a SWOT analysis to accompany the data you collect. It’s a competitive analysis framework that lists your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and is helpful in shaping your overall marketing strategy as well. SWOT leans into your competitors’ strengths and compares them to your business to define areas of improvement.
Strengths and weaknesses focus on the present. They are elements you control and can change over time, including:
Reputation;
Product offering;
Partnerships;
Intellectual property;
Number of employees;
Market share;
Assets.
Opportunities and threats are outside your control. You can plan for changes but can’t influence these elements. They include:
Competitors’ products;
The economy;
Consumer trends;
Regulation;
Market size;
Market demand.
Aim to run a SWOT analysis annually. It helps inform your break-even analysis and keeps tabs on the competitive landscape. You can anticipate problems and make continuous improvements to your business. Should you seek funding, you’ll want to include an updated SWOT analysis in your proposed business plan.
SWOT Analysis: A Simple Way to Find Your Competitive Edge (Plus a Free Template)
What is a SWOT analysis?
A SWOT analysis lists the good and bad things about your business, both from an internal and external viewpoint. The acronym SWOT stands for:
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
The SWOT framework forces you to think about the future. You know how your business is doing today, but do you know where it will be tomorrow? This process will help you figure it out and—more importantly—create a strategic plan for it.
The purpose of a SWOT analysis
Both large and small businesses should do a SWOT analysis. If you’re starting a new business, a SWOT analysis can help you decide on a business model and gain competitive advantage.
Doing it will inform your break-even analysis and give a more realistic picture of what you’re signing up for. Both should be included in a business plan if you need to seek startup financing.
Existing businesses should perform a SWOT analysis annually. Think of it as your annual State of the Business. Having it will allow you to:
Keep your business running smoothly
Anticipate problems
Work on necessary changes or improvements
Invest in smarter initiatives throughout the year
Develop new products or services
Basically—an annual SWOT analysis will keep you from losing touch with your business, customers, and industry.
Characteristics of SWOT analysis
In any SWOT analysis, strengths (S) and weaknesses (W) are internal factors, while opportunities (O) and threats (T) are external factors.
Internal factors
Internal factors come from within your ecommerce business, while external factors come from the larger environment surrounding your business.
Strengths and weaknesses mostly focus on the present, while opportunities and threats mostly focus on the future—what is happening versus what could happen.
Strengths and weaknesses are under your control. It may be difficult, but you can change them over time. Examples include:
Company culture
Reputation
Customer list
Geography
Staff
Partnerships
Intellectual property
Assets
Human resources
External factors
Conversely, opportunities and threats are typically outside of your control. You can try and plan for them or influence a positive change, but at the end of the day, it’s not up to you. Examples include:
Regulation
Suppliers
Competitors
Economy
Market size
Demographics
Market trends
Financing
Weather
SWOT analysis example
Here’s a sample SWOT analysis for an online tailored-shirt business. Although many more factors came up during brainstorming, these were deemed to be the most important.
Strengths
- Locally made shirts mean faster turnaround on orders
- Many repeat customers who promote the business
- Good search engine rankings drive free traffic
Weaknesses
- Pricing on locally made shirts is not competitive
- Higher costs mean fewer fabric options due to inventory costs
- Customers don't like taking their own measurements
Opportunities
- Using technology to simplify the measurement process could increase conversions
- Paid advertising channels such as Instagram and TikTok could be effective
- Custom made clothing is currently trending
Threats
- Several competitors are currently undercutting prices
- Website is difficult to use on a mobile device even though mobile traffic is increasing
- A strong dollar could drive down international sales
Think about what business strategies you could implement to take advantage of this information. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers here.
How to do a SWOT analysis
A SWOT analysis is far from scientific. There’s no objective way of measuring how well you do one. It relies on your ability to observe and recall internal and external factors that can impact your business. It’s not about making accurate predictions so much as it is about knowing what to plan for.
Step 1: Create a SWOT analysis matrix
Your first step is to create a SWOT analysis matrix, or download our free SWOT analysis template. A SWOT matrix is the visual toolkit for documenting ideas and helping create actionable plans.
The quadrant has a square for each area: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Step 2: Gather the right people
While important business decisions typically need to be made by founders and senior-level employees, there’s no such thing as “too many cooks in the kitchen” with a SWOT analysis. Having more input, even from people who don’t fully understand your business, will only make it stronger.
You may also find that you’ll get better buy-in on the strategy decisions that come out of the analysis if you include team members in the process. Heck, even your customers can provide valuable insight.
SWOT brainstorming
Step 3: Host a brainstorming session
Once you’ve assembled your team, host a brainstorming session with everyone involved. You can either list strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats together (better for small teams) or ask participants to create and submit lists individually (better for bigger teams).
Whether you’re working alone or with a diverse group, getting the brainstorming started can be tough. Here’s some help to get things moving.
Strengths
These are positive factors that affect how your business performs. They are internal strengths within your control that reflect your current situation. To discover your company’s strengths, think about the following questions:
- What are we good at?
- What do we do better than anyone else?
- What is our competitive advantage?
- What do we do that no one else does?
- What resources do we have at our disposal?
- What are our ecommerce company’s advantages?
- What advantages do our employees have?
- What valuable assets does our company have?
- What do our customers like about our business?
Weaknesses
These are negative factors that affect how your business performs. Although they may be difficult to change, they should be within your control.
Some company weaknesses to consider include:
- What are we bad at?
- What do our competitors do better than us?
- What do our customers complain about?
- What disadvantages does our team carry?
- What is holding us back?
- Which resources are we lacking?
- What could we improve?
Opportunities
These are external opportunities that could affect your business in a positive way. They may be largely out of your control, but you can choose to leverage them. Some questions to consider are:
- What potential regulation changes could help our business?
- Is the market changing in a favorable way?
- Is the current economy going to affect us in a positive way?
- What opportunities have we not pursued yet?
- What new opportunities are becoming available?
- What technological advancements are happening in our industry?
- Is our cost of goods going down?
- Is there a way for us to acquire useful resources that we do not already have?
- What kind of messaging connects with our target audience?
Threats
These are external factors that could affect your business in a negative way. They may be largely out of your control, but you can create a contingency plan to minimize the damage. Consider the following:
- Who are our existing competitors?
- What’s their market share?
- What new entrants to the market could threaten our ecommerce business?
- Is our market size declining?
- Is the industry changing in a way that could negatively impact our business?
- Is our cost of goods increasing?
- Is a supply we rely on becoming scarce?
- Are regulations changing in a way that could hurt our business?
- Is our manufacturer unreliable?
Include everything that comes up in each category. Don’t worry about how important each observation is at this stage—the idea is to not miss anything. Just write it all down.
Step 4: Fill the gaps
Once you’ve exhausted everyone’s ideas and come up with four big lists, it’s time to start filling in gaps where additional explanation is needed. This is an opportunity for you and your team to ask questions that will determine how important each item on the list is.
Ask everyone in the group to choose their top three items for each category. Most likely, a pattern will emerge that will show you what to focus on.
Even if it’s only you working on the analysis—don’t worry! In this case, you are likely involved in all parts of the business and will have good insight into what you need to consider. Crack a bottle of wine or brew a pot of tea and dig in!
Using your SWOT analysis
As business owners, we’re constantly having to prioritize what gets our attention. Tough decisions about resource allocation are unavoidable. No matter how successful you become, you’ll always have to pick and choose where to direct your attention. A SWOT analysis helps you determine which areas to focus your energy and resources on.
Writing a business plan
With your competitive research complete, it’s time to write your business plan. A business plan is a roadmap that helps bring your ideas and thoughts together. It's vital in determining what to prioritize and how to effectively reach potential customers. A business plan also highlights your company's mission statement to show investors and employees the core values of your brand.
How to Write the Perfect Business Plan in 9 Steps
Draft an executive summary
Describe your company
Perform a market analysis
Outline the management and organization
List your products and services
Perform customer segmentation
Define a marketing plan
Provide a logistics and operations plan
Make a financial plan
Business Plan Template: A Practical Framework for Creating Your Business
Professional business plan example
We’ve filled out a sample business plan as a companion to our template, featuring a fictional ecommerce business. We’ve noted where—and how—an entrepreneur could add more details to expand on their business plans, depending on their goals.
Our fictional business creates custom greeting cards with your pet’s paw prints on them, and the founder of the business is writing a plan to help understand the target market, as well as the logistics and costs involved, to give themselves the best chance of success before they launch.
The sample is set up to help you get a sense of each section and understand how they apply to the planning and evaluation stages of a business plan. If you’re looking for funding, this example won’t be a complete or formal look at a business plan, but it will give you a great place to start and notes about where to expand.
Before you write your own, read through the following business plan example. You can download a copy in Microsoft Word or Google Docs and use it to inspire your own planning.
Lean business plan example
A lean business plan format is a shortened version of your more detailed business plan. It’s helpful when modifying your plan for a specific audience, like investors or new hires.
Also known as a one-page business plan, it includes only the most important, need-to-know information, such as:
Company description
Suppliers
Key members of your team
Customer segments
Marketing plan
Want to create a lean business plan? Read Trimming It Down: How to Create a Lean Business Plan.
A good business plan helps you operate successfully
It’s tempting to dive right into execution when you’re excited about a new business or side project, but taking the time to write a solid business plan and get your thoughts on paper allows you to do a number of beneficial things:
- Test the viability of business ideas. Whether you’ve got one business idea or many, business plans can make an idea more tangible, helping you see if it’s truly viable.
- Plan for your next phase. Whether your goal is to start a new business or scale an existing business to the next level, a business plan can help you understand what needs to happen and identify gaps to address.
- Clarify marketing strategy, goals, and tactics. Writing a business plan can show you the actionable next steps to take on a big, abstract idea. It can also help you narrow your strategy and identify clear-cut tactics that will support it.
- Scope the necessary work. Without a concrete plan, cost overruns and delays are all but certain. A business plan can help you see the full scope of work to be done and adjust your investment of time and money accordingly.
- Hire and build partnerships. When you need buy-in from potential employees and business partners, especially in the early stages of your business, a clearly written business plan is one of the best tools at your disposal. A business plan provides a refined look at your goals for the business, letting partners judge for themselves whether or not they agree with your vision.
- Secure funds. Seeking financing for your business—whether from venture capital, financial institutions, or Shopify Capital—is one of the most common reasons to create a business plan.
Should you use a template for a business plan?
A business plan can be as informal or formal as your situation calls for, but even if you’re a fan of the back-of-the-napkin approach to planning, there are some key benefits to starting your plan from an existing outline or template.
- No blank-page paralysis. A blank page can be intimidating to even the most seasoned writers. Using an established business planning process and template can help you get past the inertia of starting your business plan, and it allows you to skip the work of building an outline from scratch. You can always adjust a template to suit your needs.
- Guidance on what to include in each section. If you’ve never sat through a business class, you might never have created a SWOT analysis or financial projections before. Templates that offer guidance—in plain language—about how to fill in each section can help you navigate sometimes-daunting business jargon and create a complete and effective plan.
- Knowing you’ve considered every section. In some cases, you may not need to complete every section of a startup business plan template, but its initial structure shows you you’re choosing to omit a section as opposed to forgetting to include it in the first place.
Tips for creating a successful business plan
There are some high-level strategic guidelines beyond the advice included in this free business plan template that can help you write an effective, complete plan while minimizing busywork.
If you’re writing a business plan for yourself in order to get clarity on your ideas and your industry as a whole, you may not need to include the same level of detail or polish you would with a business plan you want to send to potential investors. Knowing who will read your plan will help you decide how much time to spend on it.
- Know your goals. Understanding the goals of your plan can help you set the right scope. If your goal is to use the plan as a roadmap for growth, you may invest more time in it than if your goal is to understand the competitive landscape of a new industry.
- Take it step by step. Writing a 10- to 15-page document can feel daunting, so try to tackle one section at a time. Select a couple of sections you feel most confident writing and start there—you can start on the next few sections once those are complete. Jot down bullet-point notes in each section before you start writing to organize your thoughts and streamline the writing process.
3 - Choose a logo and name and set up your online store
Choose a business name
Aside from finding an actual product to sell online, another challenging decision is determining your business or brand name and choosing an appropriate and available domain name. These blog posts will help you tackle these important tasks.
Best online shop name generators
- Shopify
- Oberlo
- FreshBooks
- Anadea
- Hipster Business Names
- Getsocio
- Business Name Generator
- Namesmith
- Namelix
Creating a logo
Once you’ve selected a memorable name and registered a corresponding domain, it’s time to craft a simple logo. In these resources, we’ll show you several options for creating a great logo for your new business.
Hatchful: A simple logo maker by Shopify
Best free logo maker apps and generators
Hatchful by Shopify
Canva
Logo Maker by Ucraft
Squarespace
Understanding search engine optimization (SEO)
You’re almost ready to begin building your online store. However, before you jump into it, you should understand the basics of search engine optimization so you can properly structure your site and pages for Google and other search engines.
The Beginner’s Guide to Ecommerce SEO (VIP PAY )
Want to Rank Your Store? Get On Page One With This SEO Checklist (VIP PAY )
Building your store
With a better understanding of search engines, it’s time to build out your store using a website builder. There are many crucial elements to consider. Below, we’ve listed our essential reads to help you build high-converting product pages, write captivating product descriptions, shoot beautiful product photography, choose your ecommerce color palette, and much more.
50 Exceptional Shopify Stores to Inspire Entrepreneurs (VIP PAY )
How to Optimize Your Product Pages For More Sales: 11 Expert- Recommended Tips (VIP PAY )
Product Description Examples and Tips to Inform and Persuade Your Customers (VIP PAY )
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Sales: A DIY Guide to Beautiful Product Photography (VIP PAY )
Customizing Your Shopify Theme: How To Use Images, Colors, and Fonts 10 Must Know Image Optimization Tips (VIP PAY )
How to Create a Coming Soon Page and Start Marketing Before You Launch (VIP PAY )
Choosing your sales channels
One of the best ways to reach new customers is to choose sales channels where they already shop. The right mix of sales channels will depend on your products and your target market, but there are a number of great options that can complement and support your self-hosted store.
Etsy and Shopify: How Three Makers Used Both to Grow Their Businesses (VIP PAY )
Scaling Sales on eBay: How One Business Balances Growth, Customer Service, and Life (VIP PAY )
How a Jewelry Business Generates 76.8% of Orders Selling on Amazon with Shopify (VIP PAY )
4 - Choose your shipping strategy and set sales and marketing goals
As you get close to the launch of your new business, there are several shipping and ful몭illment elements you need to prepare for. In this section, we’ve curated a few comprehensive guides on how to determine your shipping strategy.
Ecommerce Shipping and Fulfillment: A Complete Guide (VIP PAY )
International Shipping: Everything You Need to Know to Deliver Beyond Your Borders (VIP PAY )
Shipping Strategy: Get Packages to Customers Without Cutting Into Your Bottom Line (VIP PAY )
How to Reduce Shipping Costs for Small Businesses: 6 Helpful Ways (VIP PAY )
It’s also a good idea to define your key performance indicators upfront so, once you launch, you know what measures of success to track.
67 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Ecommerce (VIP PAY )
What Are the Basic Ecommerce Metrics I Need To Focus On First? (VIP PAY )
As a final checklist, this post covers the 13 essential things you need to do before launch.
Starting up Starts Here: The Shopify Store Launch Checklist (VIP PAY )
5 - Launch your business
Acquiring your first customer
Now that you’ve launched, the hard work of marketing your products begins. While many new store owners should consider selling their physical products in person, the rest of digital marketing relies on doing one thing well: driving targeted tra몭ic. Next, we’ll share a variety of marketing tactics that will help you in your 몭irst months.
How to Get Your First Sale in 30 Days: A Marketing Checklist for New Entrepreneurs (VIP PAY )
Need Tra몭ic? Here's How to Get Visitors to a New Website (Even If You Don't Know Where to Begin) (VIP PAY )
Customer Acquisition: How to Calculate It and Create a Pro몭itable Strategy For Your Business (VIP PAY )
Marketing your store
You’re well on your way now and likely have a few sales under your belt. It’s time to get serious and invest in marketing your store. The following posts will help you zero in on your top-performing ecommerce marketing tactics or expand into new ones for driving tra몭ic and converting that tra몭ic to sales.
EMAIL MARKETING ESSENTIALS
Learn Email Marketing: Everything from List Building to Advanced Lifecycle Automation (VIP PAY )
7 Automated Email Campaigns That Win Customers and Keep Them Coming Back (VIP PAY )
How to Write Engaging Welcome Emails (+ 12 Examples to Inspire Yours) (VIP PAY )
What I Learned Analyzing 60 Days of Emails from a Fast-Growing Ecommerce Brand (VIP PAY )
Ebook: How to Grow Your Ecommerce Business with Email Marketing (VIP PAY )
DRIVING TRAFFIC FROM SOCIAL
Go Beyond Likes and Follows: How to Create a Social Media Strategy That Sells (VIP PAY )
How to Get More Followers on Instagram: 15 Reliable Ways to Grow Your Audience (VIP PAY )
Pinterest Marketing 101: How to Successfully Promote Your Business on Pinterest (VIP PAY )
How to Start a Successful YouTube Channel: 12 Steps (VIP PAY )
Find The Best Fit: Your Beginner’s Guide to Influencer Marketing in 2021 (VIP PAY )
DRIVING TRAFFIC AND CONVERSIONS FROM PAID ADS
How to Advertise on Facebook: A No-Nonsense Facebook Ads Guide For Beginners (VIP PAY )
The Google Ads Playbook: 13 Campaign Types And What to Expect From Them (VIP PAY )
17 Best Price Comparison Engines to Increase Ecommerce Sales (VIP PAY )
OPTIMIZING FOR HIGHER CONVERSIONS
The Complete Guide to A/B Testing (Tips from Google, HubSpot, and Shopify) (VIP PAY )
How to Find and Plug the Leaks in Your Conversion Funnels (VIP PAY )
Drive More Ecommerce Sales with Live Chat Without Being Trapped at Your Desk (VIP PAY )
19 Growth and CRO Experts on Increasing Revenue Without Increasing Trafic (VIP PAY )
9 Ways to Earn Customer Trust When You Have Zero Sales (VIP PAY )
The 39-Point Store Trust Checklist: How Trustworthy Is Your Online Store? (VIP PAY )
Driving Trafic but No Sales? Here's How to Diagnose and Improve Your Store (VIP PAY )
USING ANALYTICS TO UNCOVER INSIGHTS
The Beginner's Guide to Analyzing Shopify Reports and Analytics (VIP PAY )
5 Google Analytics Segments (and How to Use Them to Increase Revenue) 9 Google Analytics Custom Reports by the Experts (and How to Use Them) (VIP PAY )
Facebook Custom Audiences 101: A Starter Guide for Ecommerce Businesses (VIP PAY )
How much does it cost to start an ecommerce business?
An ecommerce business can be started for as little as $100, which is spent on a subscription and purchasing a theme for your store. Ecommerce companies cost less than brick-and-mortar stores because they don’t require the same amount of licenses and permits, and you don’t need to pay rent for a retail space.
If you operate as a dropshipping business, for example, it’ll likely cost less to start because you don’t need to pay for raw materials, inventory, or manual labor. You only pay for products after a customer purchases them. If you’re creating your own products by hand or working with manufacturers, you’ll need to pay for equipment, materials, and labor upfront.
Many ecommerce entrepreneurs start a business on a shoestring budget. To get a better idea of upfront costs, we surveyed 150 entrepreneurs and 300 small business owners in the US to find out.
According to our research, new ecommerce store owners can expect business costs to total up to $40,000 in the first year, which is paid back to the owner through profit margins.
Expense categories included:
Product: raw materials, inventory, supplier, manufacturing, patents, etc.
Operating: incorporation/legal fees, additional software, business insurance, accounting, etc.
Online store: website/platform subscription, hosting/domain, contract developer/designer, etc.
Shipping: packaging, labels, etc. Offline: stall/table fees, rent, gas, etc. Team/staff: salaries, bene몭its, perks, etc.
Marketing: logo, branding, ads, printed materials, business cards, etc.
Conclusion
Building your own ecommerce business is as exciting as it is challenging. At a rapid pace you’ll learn a ton about choosing a product, evaluating its viability, figuring out how to get it produced, building an ecommerce website, and marketing and selling to new customers. The process can feel like you’re solving a head scratcher of a puzzle, but it’s rewarding all the same.
We hope following this resource roundup helps provide you with a clearer roadmap. As always, the best advice anyone can give is to just get started and to enjoy yourself along the way.
Illustration by Abdelillah Berradi
Leave a comment if you have any questions.