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Key steps to follow when launching online shopping

Industry News 23 December 2020

The online space has opened immense business opportunities in different economic sectors. An increasing number of entrepreneurs now have a choice between a physical store and an online store.

For many, the online option has proven cost-effective and profitable due to the ever-expanding market of consumers who transact and purchase goods and services digitally.

The e-commerce world offers unlimited avenues through which businesses can be run. The key is knowing what to do in this process. Guzzle allows retailers to reach a broad clientele and cater to diverse demographics through access to a variety of catalogues where consumers can search for products, compare prices and make a purchasing decision.

What steps should you follow when launching online shopping?

Budget

It goes without saying that nobody goes into business without finance. What is important however in this instance apart from having finance is to carefully allocate financial resources to avoid collapsing your business in its infancy.

Avoid making a mistake of purely focusing on the products, there are other expenses you will still need to take care of such as web development and internet expenses.

So carefully write down what needs financing as you begin establishing online shopping.

Products

The type of products you sell can make or break your business. What can also be harmful to your business is not being passionate about what you sell. You need to do proper market research to determine what is lacking in the market.

You also need to make sure what is lacking is something you can passionately convince someone to buy. Once you have
established that, you are good to go.

Decide between dropship or holding your own products

Dropship simply refers to a situation where a store purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer without stocking or owning inventory.

Holding your own products involves buying them and keeping stock for possible purchase by consumers.
Both provide their own advantages and disadvantages from a cost, shipping and inventory point of view.

Select a target market

What is your target market? Is it the youth, elderly, low-income, high-income earners, male, female?

Knowing the market segment you are targeting will assist you to align your product acquisition and business growth plans. Knowing your target market will also assist you in ongoing advertising and marketing campaigns.

Choose an e-commerce solution

Deciding on the type of e-commerce solutions involves careful consideration of the ability to integrate with your websites and social media and payment methods you wish to use. E-commerce solutions enable you to grow your business allowing the front-end and back-end to work with efficiency. You can choose between the hosted, licensed and open-source e-commerce solutions depending on your needs and business plans.

Pick a domain name

The aspect of a domain name must not be overlooked in the competitive world of online shopping. A good domain name will allow you to distinguish yourself from other competitors and also make it easy for would-be customers to easily locate your business brand.

Social media

Social media adds immense value to online shopping. Through social media, you can promote your business brand, promotions, new products and so much more. You must therefore have good social media presence with compelling and engaging content.

The content has to be aligned with what your business sells and the social media platforms you choose must correspond with your targeted market.

Site traffic

It is essential to have a measuring process and tools in place to help you understand the traffic (users) coming to your site, their interests and how they engage.

There are many choices to choose from so make sure you do your research on the best measuring tools for your business.

Establish transport and shipping options

You need to bear in mind the fact that potential buyers of products and services will either be local or even international depending on what type of business you choose to get involved in.

How will they receive the products? Do you need to ship or courier? If you have a bit of extra capital, it’s not a bad idea to consider offering flat rate shipping or discounted shipping and pay for it on your side. Discounted courier and shipping rates are very attractive to many consumers.

Plan announcement

Once you have done the above, it’s time to make a public announcement. You can do this by beginning to post dates of the launch online.

You can also consider community events designed to draw public attention to the launch. The key steps listed above will assist you to have a great start when launching online shopping.

You can also consider Guzzle which provides retailers with an easier way of advertising products and promotions while allowing consumers to browse all catalogue promotions in one place.

Guzzle Media