Almost everyone you know shops online, which is why any online business has the potential to be a success. Unfortunately, there’s tons of competition—but with a great product and business plan, you could stand out from the crowd and create a successful business, all from the comfort of your own home. Here’s how you can build a thriving online business.
Determine What You’ll Sell
Any eCommerce business needs something to sell, even if it’s not a physical object. Deciding what you want to sell depends on a number of factors, including your preferences, where your audience is based, and how you’ll be able to ship products. For example, you can sell a non-perishable product across the world, but baked goods might not be able to leave the state.
The product you sell should have something that sets it apart from any other product and solve real-world problems. You can position yourself in a number of ways, but make sure that you highlight the benefits of shopping with your business instead of the competition. For example, you may have found a way to offer same-day shipping, while your competition promises to ship their products within 7 to 10 business days. Or maybe offering Asian snacks like these one’s from Trustana that can’t easily be bought anywhere else.
Determine Where You’ll Sell Products
You can choose to sell your products only on your website, on Amazon, or on a number of other available marketplaces. Whether you choose Shopify vs. Amazon is up to you, but you should consider selling on both. Amazon will help more individuals learn about your business, which will make them want to visit your website outside of Amazon.
Amazon has a different set of rules when it comes to marketing your products. Make sure to do Amazon keyword research so that you can ensure your products rank on the first page of Amazon search results pages and can be found by more potential customers.
Do Competitive Analysis
Competitive analysis can tell you a lot about your business, your target audience, and ideal marketplaces to sell your products. Find out what your competitors’ exact offerings are, where they sell their products, their price points, and their customers’ complaints.
Not only can this help you learn more about why your customers are succeeding or failing, but it can help you determine how to run your business better.
Market Effectively
Marketing your online business isn’t as simple as some people think. There are several different strategies that you can use to start promoting your online store and products. Social media marketing and SEO are two of the most important digital marketing strategies that growing eCommerce businesses should consider. Other options include:
- Google Shopping, search, and display Ads
- Native advertising
- Social media advertising
Whatever you choose to do, make sure that you have a budget and people on your staff who know what they’re doing. For example, Google Ads is making it easier for business owners to advertise, but if you want to make the most out of your budget, we recommend working with an expert who can help you bring your cost per click (CPC) down and increase conversions.
Promote Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty means that your customer will keep coming back. As you may know, retaining customers is much cheaper than acquiring new customers, so you’ll need to make sure that you have a customer loyalty program in place to help keep people coming back to your online store.
You can promote customer loyalty by:
- Offering unique benefits to subscribers
- Providing coupons for birthdays
- Sharing customer content on your social media
- Providing exceptional customer service
Never Stop Improving
Make sure that your customers know you’re always looking out for them by showing them that you’re always improving. You can improve your products, processes, shipping times, and almost anything that pertains to your business. You can also reach out to customers to ask for their feedback so you can learn more ways to improve to keep them coming back.
If you’re thinking of starting an online business, make sure you have a plan and a whole lot of patience. It can be a long road, but with the right tools and strategy in place, you can build a thriving online business.
