Click here to get this post in PDF
There’s no better time to set up an online business. But starting an eCommerce store is no small feat.
If you’re here, then you have the drive to succeed. Now you must research, learn, and do the legwork by:
- Creating an engaging brand
- Selecting the right eCommerce platform
- Finding trending products to sell
- Standing out from Competitors
- Setting up order fulfillment
These are the 6 key pillars needed to build a successful online store. Each requires careful planning to set up.
But don’t fret. Below, we’ll guide you through the whole process. Once we’re done, you’ll be ready to start a successful eCommerce business in 2022.
1- Build Your Brand Identity
Customers want reliable products from trustworthy brands. So, there’s nowhere to go without proper branding.
When customers have a delightful experience with your brand, they’ll surely come back for more. Plus, they’ll recommend you with their peers.
So, how can you build a memorable brand? Start off defining the 4 branding pillars:
- Vision. What drives your business? What do you expect to achieve? Vision goes beyond profits. It’s your reason to help and delight customers.
- Values. What’s dear to you? Reliability, quality? Your values break down your vision into practical goals that benefit customers.
- Voice. How do you talk to your audience? Brands should have a clear, consistent and friendly voice. It makes you recognizable and unique.
- Visuals. These are your logo, colors and typography. It’s the dress etiquette that makes you recognizable to customers.
Once you have these basic pillars, it’s time to spread the word to customers. Here are some of the key steps to do so.
Custom Benefits
Tell customers how your product will improve their lives. Also, point out your product’s most unique features.
Let’s say you sell wrist-watches. But the difference is that all your products are handmade from recycled wood.
Plus, each watch comes in a custom wooden box. And to top it off, customers can engrave personalized messages on their watches. You can also get help from Boss Laser if you want to learn more about laser engraving and cutting machines. Laser engraving can help provide customers with a more personalized experience.
There are three key benefits to making you stand out. Besides, you can target a niche market focused on handmade, eco-friendly shopping.
Who’s Your Audience?
Don’t just launch your brand out, point it to the right audience. Let’s take the wooden wristwatch example.
What’s the best way to locate an audience that’d need such an item?
- Find out who they are. Find their age and demographics, but also go beyond? What are their needs and desires?
- Locate them. That means going for their online hangouts. That includes social media, web forums and blog sites.
- Know their needs. Identify the ways your product will benefit their lives. For example, recycling with style, or making a unique fashion statement.
- Use their search terms. Research how to find products online. You’ll come up with effective keywords that’ll draw them to your store.
Product Quality
As a new seller, it’s crucial to ensure your product’s quality. One good strategy is to focus on selling a single product at first.
By focusing on a single item, you’ll have better control of building, packaging, shipping and deliveries.
Plus, your in-depth knowledge of the product will amaze customers. This will make them remember your brand over time.
Content Diversity
They say that content is king because it’s true. Content is your gateway to reach the target audience for your brand.
Set up a dedicated team to build your content. Create podcasts, how-to videos, blogs and infographics. Use as many channels as you can to promote your brand.
Along with having the best product quality, it is also important to look after the product image quality and how realistic it looks to the original physical product. Customers will always want their products to look exactly what they bought online hence make sure to use photo retouching service before posting any product images. The most amazing service we can recommend is uk clipping path, with high professional, top customer satisfaction as well as they have a free trial option. So, what are you waiting for?
2- Choose Your Ecommerce Platform
This will be the foundation of your eCommerce business. But it’s not just about opening an account on Spotify and starting to list products.
You need to go for an e-commerce platform that is powerful, reliable and most importantly, scalable. This will ensure that you are meeting the requirements, as well as building for the future. The strength of your e-commerce platform is directly proportional to the success you can expect in terms of customers, branding and sales!
It takes strategic planning and research to select the best platform for your needs. Here are the 3 key points to consider:
- The goals you’ve set for your business, such as revenue boost.
- Customer engagement strategy to keep users coming in.
- The technical expertise of your work team.
- Lead generation tactics to attract new audiences.
- The running costs of setting up shop and developing the store.
- Competition landscape within each platform
- The estimated growth rate of your business over time.
Always consider your resources before choosing your eCommerce platform. And when shopping for the best options, make sure the platform offers the following:
- Expertise. The platform should meet all your requirements. So, check that your chosen vendor has the experience to deliver what you need. For example, support, selling tools, or CPC ads.
- Seller Support. Errors happen all the time. The best eCommerce platforms have the proper support set up to help sellers navigate through any setbacks. Review the platform’s support tools and channels before committing to them.
- Scalability. Think long-term. Can the eCommerce platform help you scale your business? Check their available tiers and select one that will let you grow your business over time.
- SEO Friendly. Keywords, custom URL, personalized storefronts. The best eCommerce platforms have the tools to up your SEO game with ease.
- Mobile Friendly. Most online sales are done using mobile devices. Your platform should have a mobile-friendly site to attract customers.
- Security. Consider the steps the platform takes to protect sellers. For example, check their policies and actions against product hijacks, counterfeits, and scammers.
3- Find Trending Products to Sell
Successful sellers know how to find trending products that draw users in. The key is to select high-demand, niche-focused items to reduce competition.
Product research apps like Jungle Scout can deliver accurate product data. For example, you can rate items by rating and reviews to choose the best sales opportunities.
Of course, it takes a bit of time to set up a proper product research suite. In the meantime, we’d like to give you a head start.
Here are some trending products to kickstart your eCommerce business in 2022:
Office Chairs
Many of us will keep working from home for some time. That’s prompted customers to search for good, comfy office chairs to build their home offices.
Let’s review some office chair-related monthly search volumes from Keywords Everywhere:
- Office chair – 1,220,000
- Office chair ergonomic – 90,500
- Home office chair – 49,500
- Office chairs for sale – 49,500
The office chair market is a great opportunity for online sellers. Besides, the office chair market is not wholly affected by seasonal trends.
That means you could sell this product all year round, with few losses.
Writing tools
This is a highly searched market online. Spotify states that the pen and pencil market is worth $21 billion.
Keywords Everywhere estimates the following Keyword search volumes per month:
- Pens – 673,000
- Fountain pens – 201,000
- Pencils – 550,000
- Prismacolor pencils – 74,000
One great advantage of this market is its niche diversity. Merchants could sell high-end colored pencils to artists, or luxury pens to business executives.
Home Improvement Tools
People are spending more time at home. And some look to work on DIY home improvement projects. Why not help them out?
Think of power tools, especially drills. Global Market Insights estimates that the power drill industry could surpass %13 billion by 2027.
Keywords Everywhere rate the keyword search volume for drills is over 450,000 per month.
But it’s not just about power drills. Sellers can also deal in tool supplies: bit sets, battery packs, and cases.
Each small appliance may attract a niche audience, that is ready to make a sale.
Home Décor Apparel
Home Décor accessories is also a growing market. Whether it’s urns, jars or vases, you can find many niches to satisfy. A new trend in the US is neon signs.
As of September 2021, the keyword search volume for “neon signs” is 301,000 per month. Of course, you can also take advantage of specific terms to boost sales.
- Custom neon signs – 90,500 monthly searches
- Neon signs for room – 22,200 monthly searches
- Bar neon signs –18,100 monthly searches
- Beer neon signs – 18,100 monthly searches
The neon sign market has many customers to satisfy. For example, wedding planners, offices, bars and restaurants.
Source: Shopify
4- Stand Out from the Crowd
It’s one thing to find the best items to sell. That could be for nought if you don’t know how to market your stock.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is one of the best ways to reach the market. The right influencer recommendation can boost your visibility and sales.
Work with personalities that are truly interested in your product. These could be micro-influencers. They usually are experts with access to 1,000-100,000 followers.
The advantage of micro-influencers is their engagement rate. They are well trusted by their followers, so they can drive conversions.
Giveaways
Give away a product for free to a lucky customer. Giveaways are very effective to boost brand awareness.
Customers only have to complete simple steps to enter, like following your social media pages. So, you win more visibility, and customers get to know your brand.
Content Diversity
They say that content is king because it’s true. Content is your gateway to reach the target audience for your brand.
Set up a dedicated team to build your content. Create podcasts, how-to videos, blogs and infographics. Use as many channels as you can to promote your brand.
SEO
Take advantage of the most relevant search terms for your brand. Make sure to use them in posts and descriptions to describe your product.
SEO will boost your social media performance. Also, it will tell you what drives users to your offers.
Source: Influencer Marketing Hub
5- Setting Up Order Fulfillment
Product deliveries can make or break a business. A well-set fulfilment operation guarantees customers will get their orders on time.
Big players have their own ecommerce fulfillment operation set up. The best option for new sellers is to work with a third-party service.
Third-party fulfiller feature date and flexible storage space. Plus, they also free up your team to work on new tasks. But first, you must ensure they have what it takes to help you:
Omnichannel Integration
Your eCommerce platform should link smoothly with the fulfillment center. That way, the supplier can get notifications of each incoming order. Thus, you’ll reduce downtimes and speed up delivery times.
Inventory Management
A proper fulfilment partner should store your stock within 1-2 days after reception. It should also update the inventory status, so you can start selling as soon as possible.
Your partner should also grant access to a stock management system. This is crucial to manage overstock, or inventory scarcity.
Order Fulfillment
This is picking, packing and shipping. It should be the fulfiller’s specialty. The best fulfillment centers are fast and accurate when fulfilling orders.
Make sure they offer a next-day turnaround. Or even better, check if they handle same-day shipping.
Take Amazon FBA as an example. With this program, sellers allow Amazon to store, pack, and ship their products. Merchants only worry about delivering stock and selling products.
Source: RedStag Fulfillment
Final Thoughts
Ecommerce shopping is booming. Customers are buying more products online than ever before.
Setting up an eCommerce store is certainly the right move for you. That said, the process takes a lot of effort and time.
You already have the drive to do it. Now, review the resources at hand to begin the journey:
- The amount of capital you have
- A proper workspace to do business in
- The time you’ll dedicate to your store
- A niche market to start selling
- The appropriate fulfillment channels
Build upon your strengths to set up the best online store you can. Then stay committed to the process. In time, your eCommerce Business will certainly reap great profits.
Author
Esteban Muñoz is an SEO copywriter at AMZ Advisers, with several years’ experience in digital marketing and e-commerce. Esteban and the AMZ Advisers team have been able to achieve incredible growth on the Amazon platform for their clients by optimizing and managing their accounts and creating in-depth content marketing strategies.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/estebanma/
You may also like: What is an Ecommerce Business and the Importance of Ecommerce for Your Business?
Image source: elements.envato.com
