How to Start an Ecommerce Business with ZERO Experience

How to Start an Ecommerce Business with ZERO Experience

Businesses should be improving and catching up with the latest trend where e-commerce is the next step for your business to be looking forward to. Not to eliminate the brick-and-mortar, but the future of commerce lies in online sales.

It can be understandable that some may have the thought of starting up an e-commerce business but have no idea where to start and what to do. Therefore, this is the blog that you find helpful and useful if you have zero experience on how to start an e-commerce business from scratch.

Research on E-commerce Business Models and Niche

Beginning with research is always the first and most critical step. But without research, you will hardly succeed in your ecommerce business. There are several business models like wholesaling and white labelling but it was recommended that drop shipping is the best choice for anyone who wants to start running an ecommerce business. There is not a single business structure that works for everyone, which is why you should do your research on which suits your business best. 

Besides, it is very important to choose your niche while opening your online business where you can get reference by identifying successful companies that are already working in that space. What is niche marketing? 

For example, you want to sell toothbrushes, if you are targeting the niche market, you will target on selling braces brush to customers who have braces. On the other hand, mass marketing will just target the majority which is normal toothbrushes. 

You will have to make sure that the area you chose is competitive because lack of competition means there is no market. At the same time, you should also avoid picking over crowded niches so that you face less competition as well. 

Target Market & Product Ideas

After knowing which business model and niche you are targeting, it is time for you to figure out the target market who you want to sell your products and what you plan to sell. 

For example, set your demographics:

Age: 

  • Babies / Toddlers (0-3) 
  • Young Kids (4-12) 
  • Teenagers (13-21) 
  • Adults (22-50)  
  • Elderly (51 and above)

Gender: Male / Female

Thinking about personas is important because you cannot expect people to buy your products when you yourself do not even know who you are selling to. You will have to understand different consumer behaviour to target the ones that suit your business. 

For example:

  • Routine Shopping – The shopper buys without having to do much research, there is low involvement, and usually at low cost. Such as, the thought behind what to buy in our weekly supermarket shopping is relatively simple.
  • Limited decision making – The buyer occasionally purchases the product after somebody recommended it. Such as, when a woman wants to dye her hair, she may ask friends for a reliable option. 
  • Extensive decision making – People spend much longer deciding when they are considering an expensive product. Consumers spend time carrying out research and comparing multiple products. Such as, when buying a TV, people spend a long time going to different shops and comparing products.
  • Impulse buying – The customer had not planned to buy. Such as, you have not planned to buy any candy or chocolates at the supermarket. But when you’re queueing up, you just suddenly drop a chewing gum into your shopping basket.

After identifying the ideal customers, it is now the time to tackle the product ideas. Before you invest in any of the products, evaluate them by getting reference from successful ecommerce businesses.

Price Range & Location

Price range is an important element while setting up an ecommerce platform. It is crucial for you to set a reasonable price range for your products. This is because the higher the price range, the higher the purchasing decision period. It requires a lot of trust for customers to purchase high price products from online platforms as they might be worried of being scammed. 

For example:

Luxury products price range: RM100-RM250

Affordable products price range: RM20-RM100

Economical products price range: RM1-RM20

Therefore, lower price range products will be easily sold off compared to higher price range products. Location is also one of the factors where you will have to consider as you need to decide if your business products or services are targeting locally, internationally or just certain states. 

price range

Register your Ecommerce Business & Brand Name

After you have everything ready, you have to register your business before bringing it online. There are legal protections and tax benefits for incorporating, so never skip this step. Besides, you also need to pick a name for your store and get your business licenses.

To ease your ecommerce business pathway, you must find the right vendors as you are going to have a lot of competition selling products online, so it is important to find the best quality and prices for the products you sell or materials you use to create your products.

When you get all the preparation steps set, it is time for you to move online. Below will be the online development process to guide you in setting up an ecommerce platform. The appearance and design of your website will directly affect the image of your business where customers will continue to stay on your site or leave.

Create your Online Store

By creating an online store, you will have to choose the right ecommerce platform for your business. How to define a good ecommerce platform? A platform that is easy for you to set up, modify changes, manage your content and easy to track orders is a good ecommerce platform for your business. 

Web Development

While developing your ecommerce platform, there are a few important elements you will have to take in consideration. For an ecommerce business, it is important for your content to deliver clear messages on the services or products you are offering.

Besides, you will also have to come out with an engaging design concept and colour scheme to keep your audience attracted. Most importantly, your ecommerce platform must be mobile responsive and user friendly to ease and maximise your customers’ convenience. 

web development

Payment Gateway

Payment gateway is one of the most important features that you have to set up for an ecommerce business as it will ease the buying process for your customers. Find the most suitable online merchant for your business by considering the factors including its set up fee and also its supported payment method and currencies.

You will also have to make sure all transaction data and details of your customers are secure with point-to-point encryption. This will strengthen and improve customer engagement if you get all of the features mentioned set up well. 

payment gateway

Packaging and Shipping

Lastly, packaging and shipping will be your final touch for your ecommerce business. After getting all the preparation and development done, packaging and shipping of your products is the last step before delivering them out to your customers.

Do make sure that you use good quality packaging materials for your business so customers will be able to receive their goods in a fine condition. Besides, you should never forget to provide clear shipping policies, real time shipping information and also offer different shipping options for customers to choose. 

Conclusion

In a nutshell, setting up an ecommerce business is not hard and you can definitely start up one even with zero experience but it is also not a one day thing where you can accomplish it without any research or preparation.

Everything needs effort including starting an ecommerce business. Therefore, get your research done well and also put in quality time to plan on how you want your ecommerce business to run in order to succeed in this field. 

Feeling interested in starting an ecommerce business yourself? Contact us, VeecoTech and we will help and guide you through it all without worries.

Don’t stand a chance to miss out on other interesting blogs. Check out these fantastic strategies to grow your e-commerce business to know how to grow your ecommerce business.

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About the Author

Meet VeecoTech Team sharing cutting-edge insights on web design, ecommerce, SEO, and mobile apps. We’re passionate about empowering businesses with digital success. Join us on this exciting journey towards online excellence.

2023-12-15T09:45:03+08:00September 22nd, 2022|eCommerce Solutions|

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