You might have heard… it’s not a bad time to start an ecommerce business. The industry is growing fast, there’s little overhead involved with a purely digital online store, and more people are doing their shopping online every day, in all sectors.
But people that rush into entrepreneurship don’t often take the time to consider the details of their business plan. In fact, there are thousands that have the same idea and without a major cost-prohibitive barrier to enter the market, competition is fierce. Here are 3 tips to make your emerging store stand out among the competition:
1. Embrace Partnerships
Many first-time online sellers fail because they try to go it on their own. The approach that brings success to a vast majority of e-sellers involves forming meaningful partnerships with more successful stores, both ecommerce and brick & mortar.
Why? Because Amazon and the like have it all figured out, as far as drawing and retaining customers. Associating with a major brand can kickstart your business, after which you can re-assess your relationships.
2. Market and Re-Market Through Multiple Channels
To get the largest return out of your likely small, starting advertising budget, you have to capitalize on opportunities to build loyal customers. This means send emails to shoppers that abandon their carts and take part in less expensive advertising strategies like content marketing in the form of blog posts and valuable email newsletters.
Your starting budget for advertising and outreach will most likely be miniscule; that’s the part of starting a new business that most people consider to be the most expendable (as opposed to, say, rent on your inventory storage) and you’ll want to squeeze every dollar of ROI out of this budget.
3. Consider the Limits of Your Products and Pricing
It may seem like an attractive option to offer deep discounts, but according to Inc., nothing makes a seller appear more desperate than frequently discounting products, not to mention the effect it has on your profit margins.
The same goes for your product range. While you may think it’s a better option to try and meet the needs of more customers, this can increase the inventory burden on your business. Ask yourself, “is it more complicated and expensive to store 1000 units of 1 product or 1 unit of 1000?”.
The market for ecommerce businesses has never been more attractive, and in turn, more contentious. To stand out among the intense competition, you’ll need to solidify your business plan in a way that gets the most out of your limited resources.
