Ecommerce Startup? Follow These Steps!

The important thing to remember when it comes to ecommerce businesses is that you have to do things the right way. It doesn’t matter who you are, you cannot make a mistake right out of the gate that costs you thousands of dollars. You have to put a strategy together and allow your business to grow the right way. Here’s the best way to get started:

1. Do not pay thousands for a site: You cannot pay thousands of dollars for a new website if you are a startup. Think about the hole that puts you in? Before you’ve made a single sale, you’re already thousands of dollars behind and now you have a minimal marketing budget to introduce your brand to consumers. Instead of building your own site, use platforms like Shopify, Amazon, eBay and Facebook to sell your inventory. These are all great networks that either ask for little money each month or only cost you something when you make a sale.
2. Establish your brand: Now that you’ve saved tens of thousands of dollars you can take those savings and use it to market your brand. Make sure you are established on Google with business listings and set up social media pages, even if you do not think it will generate a lot of revenue. Remember, if someone has never heard of you and they find your site, chances are they will go to Google to see who you are and what other consumers have to say about you.
3. Identify your ideal target audience: Who is most likely to buy your products? Is it men between the ages of 25-55 or women between the ages of 35-55? You have to identify the audience mostly likely to buy from you and then also determine which platforms are the best to reach them on.
4. Get aggressive with your marketing: Now that you have your inventory up on multiple, established sites and now that you’ve established a strong presence on Google, it’s time to get aggressive with whatever you are going to do with your marketing. Whether it’s email, social media, display ads or direct mail, or a combination of all of them, start hitting your target audience over and over again, the more times the better, even if you do not see an immediate sale.
5. Remember to take advantage of holidays: If you offer 50% off a product on a Tuesday and 25% off the same product on Labor Day Weekend, chances are you will see more sales on the Labor Day Weekend because that’s when consumers are interested in shopping. This is why you want to already have an established relationship with your target audience so that when you send out ads for a big holiday sale, they are already familiar with you and will take an interest in your promotion.

You may find it weird that a marketing agency that builds amazing websites recommends that you avoid getting one. The fact is that if you are working with a limited budget and you are just getting started, your money is better spent marketing to an audience and hopefully generating sales. Once you’ve established a strong online presence and you are bringing in sales, you can either keep your Shopify site or move onto building your own.