How to Branch Out into the World of eCommerce

There are a few things that can impede upon a business’s growth. One factor is a lack of capital, another is a lack of skills, but if you have the products, logistics systems and the capital you need to support growth, the major limiting factor you will encounter will be your market. eCommerce is a godsend to anybody who is looking to expand their market. Branching out into the digital world opens your business up to customers from any location – whether you want to sell internationally or just on the other side of the same state. If you want to branch out into the world of eCommerce, there are several steps you need to take.

• Business Model

If you already have a business that you want to expand, you will already know what you’re going to be selling. Maybe take a moment to consider how appropriate your offerings are to an online audience (perhaps think about a reduced spread if you will have difficulty with logistics for larger items), but make sure you have your logistics nailed down. You might want to consider dropshipping if your suppliers allow it, as this will save you a lot of money on logistics.

• Site

Once you know exactly what you’ll sell and how you’ll sell it, you just need to find an online vehicle for your products. If you’re a tech whizz, you can build your own site, but the chances that you know enough to build your own eCommerce site and facilitate transactions are fairly slim. Luckilythere are a lot of platforms that can help you, the leading one being Shopify. These platforms make it easy to sell products, but they don’t make it easy to convert customers – that is on you. Many people partner with Shopify experts so that they can optimize their site in order to improve the chance of making a sale, as well as improve SEO in order to attract potential customers to your website in the first place – this is part of marketing but should be done partly in your site code.

• Marketing Your Store

You will then need to spend a lot of time showing people that your site exists. There are numerous ways you can do this, but the most popular forms of digital marketing are SEO (which can be technical and non-technical – driven mainly by content), social media advertising and PPC (pay per click). You will need to learn about the different forms of digital marketing and create a campaign that encompasses different approaches through different channels in a marketing mix. This can be done with a limited budget, but getting to grips with the basics if you’re not familiar can be very time-consuming, so you might want to think about consulting with a marketing expert about the right approach for you. If you have a good idea about the location you want to reach with your site, you can also consider integrating leaflets and offers into your campaign.