During a widespread health crisis, selling from a physical store might not be an option for you, andgoing to the storemight not be an option for your customers.The best alternativein a situation like this is to sell online. If you haven’t already started, then now may bea goodtime to make the switch.
If customers can’t shop in person, selling online can help you reachthem and keep your business up and running. Whileselling onlinecan be beneficial to almostany business, it can be especiallyuseful for businesses that are selling essential products and services that arein high demand. Having an ecommerce business model can helpthose essential products reach moreof thepeople who need them.
Afterfeeling the economic results of a pandemic,manybusinesses that still run physical stores arenowbeginning to realize the value of selling online. This is why global ecommerce sales aregenerallyexpected torise after crises.Statista has estimated thatglobal retail ecommerce sales will reach 6.54 trillion USD by 2022, from the current 3.53 trillion USD.
If you are thinking about selling online,then here ishow you can get started.
Do your (market) research
Before jumping into the world of ecommerce, you want to be sure that your business will actually thriveonlineand that there isenough demand for the products you sell. Start by running a keyword search using thetitle of the products and services you offer. This will give you a basic idea of how popular (or unpopular) your business type and products are, and will also tell you which of your items are currentlythe mostpopular so that you know what to add to your store first.Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends aregood toolsfor this, since they can tell you how much traffic a particular keyword gets. You can also look through social media: check out what’s new from hashtags, what popular influencers are talking about and sharing, and even the ads that popup.
Pick an ecommerce business model
An important part of selling online is figuring out what type of ecommerce business model you want to follow.This requires some careful thought and comparison, since each type operates differently and requires different financial support. There are four mainbusiness models,differentiated by the starting point and enduser.
B2C (Business to consumer)
B2C ecommerce is the most popular type of business model, since it targetsindividual, independent consumers. Anything that suppliesthe common consumer, from a website that sells clothes to a pizza delivery app,falls under the B2C model.
B2B (Business to business)
B2B ecommerce, although not as popular as B2C, is fairly common among businesses that supplyeach other,like a supply chain. Thismodel specializes in wholesale and bulk transactions. For instance, a business that sells parts to another business that uses these parts to create a final product isfollowing the B2B model.
C2B (Consumer to business)
C2B e-commerce, is when consumers share their products or services with businesses. Examples include when a businesses hire a freelancer or influencer to promote their products.
C2C (Consumer to consumer)
C2C ecommerce brings together separate consumers who have something to offer each other. Popular examples include resale sites like eBay and OfferUp, service-trading platforms like Fiverr and TaskRabbit, and newspaper classified ads.
Find a selling platform
Now that you’ve done your market research, and figured out the type of model thatsuits your business, you need a platform to sell your products andmanage your store operations.There are several types of selling platforms for you to choose from, so it’s importantto understand them and make aninformed decision.Here is an overview ofthedifferent types ofselling platformsyou can use for ecommerce:
Ecommerce platforms
There are two categories of ecommerce platforms: hosted and self-hosted.
Hosted solutions
Hosted ecommerce platforms are ready-made solutions that you can rent for a nominal fee. They’re owned by another company, which make them a good choice for businesses that are new to ecommerce and would like to test the waters with minimal expense and commitment. All you need to do is upload the details of your products, connect to a payment gateway, and start selling. Popular examples include Shopify and BigCommerce
Buthosted platforms aren’t the right solution for businesses thatwant customers tofocus on their brand and design, since the owning company’s designwill dominate your customers’ experience.
Self-hosted solutions
On the other hand, a self-hosted platform, such as WooCommerceor Magento,is a solution that you purchase and own. This means more freedom to design, structure, and organize your platform and website. After purchasing the platform, youneed to set upthe server on your computer, and store and maintain all of your business data within that server.
The catch with self-hosted solutions is that you will have to build your online store from scratch, and if you are new to the type of code used, thiscan be difficult.But if you have the resources, youcan hire someone to take care of thispartfor you.
Onlinemarketplaces
Inessence, an online marketplace is an ecommerce website that allows you to sell your products online. You will have to create a catalogue of products that you’d like to sell and add it to the marketplace’scategories of existing products that other sellers have also listed.Unlike e-commerce platforms, marketplaces are not the place to start a business, since your customers won’t be able to see your brand or store. Instead they will only be able toview your products as one amongst others. Amazon, eBay,etsy, Alibaba, and Google Shopping are all online marketplaces.
Free classifiedad sites
Free classifiedad sites are exactly whatyou’d think: aplace for you to list your products for free. The website is only responsible for the listing, and you will need to take care of the product delivery and payments when you make a sale. Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, OLX, Gumtree, Hoobly, and Oodle are some popular free classifiedad listing sites.
Now that you know all your options, you’ll need to pick one. Here are a fewimportantquestions that you can ask yourself tofind the perfect platform for your business.
How many different payment options does it allow? Whatpayment service provider andpayment gateways does it use?
How secure is the platform? Is it PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant?
What other tools is it integrated with that you can also use?
Is it mobile friendly?
Does it allow you to customize your webpage’s design to follow your brand’s theme?
How good is its customer service? Will they be able to help you during a crisis?
Create product descriptions
When switching from a brick-and-mortar store to ecommerce, you’re making a big change to the way your customers perceive your products. Instead of being able to hold, see, touch, and test your products and their functionalities, customers are now looking at pictures and reading descriptions toassess your products before making a purchase. For your regular customers, not much will have changed since they have experience with your products already. But it may be a challenge to connect with new and potential customers.
When setting up your ecommerce website,usegood SEO techniques so that your products stand out. Come up with your own personalized, product titles and descriptions to put up on your website that follows appropriate SEO, instead of just recycling the information your suppliers or manufacturers have provided. Take good quality pictures of your products, and make videos showing how they work so that your customers can properly see what you’re offering them. This will all help you get through to prospective customers. Depending on the number of products you have, creating this content can be pretty time-consuming. Spread out your work and try to finish at least a few products a day so that you can start adding them to your store.
Manage your inventory
Businesses that startedoutby selling onlinegenerally manage their inventorythrough thesellingplatform that they’re using, while businesses that started off with a brick-and-mortar store may be more used to working with an inventory or warehouse management system.If you’replanning to sell online while also keeping your offline store, then you’ll need a solution thatmanages your inventory from bothyour physical store and online store, preferablyon a single platform.A solution like this can help you keep an eye on your stock levels and transfers between warehouses, generate accurate reports, and even help with your accounting.It should also be able to help you with end-to-end tracking for every item or batch of items in your warehouses.
Strategize your order management
As a physical store owner,you probably didn’t need to manage too much shipping.With an online store, however, almost all of the orders you receive will need to be shipped,unless you arrange for the buyerto pick up the order themselves.Order management, which includespicking your products from a warehouse for an order,packing them appropriately, and then shipping them to the correct recipient, will become a pretty big part of your business routine.
Toensure that each part of this process works smoothly, you canuse anorder management system.These systemsoffer a long list ofbenefits, like effectively managing online and offline orders, integrating with fulfillment and major shipping services, shipment tracking, and notifying customers about their order status. Some order management systems even come with inventory management functionalities, so that you can coordinate both aspects of your business on a single platform.
If an order management system doesn’t seem like enough to handle your order volume or complexity, then you can always work with a 3PL company or fulfillment service such as Amazon’s FBA. For a fee, these companies take care of all of your order management processes from start to finish.
During a crisis that requires isolation, going into your store to manage your business may not be safe or even possible. Instead, the best way to keep your business stable is to sell online. To successfully transition from brick-and-mortar sales to ecommerce, you’ll need to think about a lot of new factors, from helping your customers visualize your products to choosing a selling platform and an order management system. If you start with a good understanding of how you want your business to work, you can pick the tools you need to give your customers a positive shopping experience and keep your sales healthy. To help you get started on your ecommerce journey check out Zoho Inventory’s integration with Amazon, a combination of an order management system with a marketplace like Amazon, to manage, track, and fulfill orders.
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