Start an Online business

Ecommerce stores have grown rapidly in South Africa in the recent years. The internet has become a powerful platform for providing brand awareness for ecommerce stores / websites.  Online shopping has vastly increased in the past years, consumers see it as a more convenient method of shopping, since you can purchase items at any time of the day and with the busy schedules of consumers ecommerce stores is the perfect way for them to shop.

In order for you to successfully create an ecommerce store there are a few aspects that you should consider to make sure your online store is a success and that it is creating the traffic and sales that you want.

Know your product

It is essential for you to know your product inside and out. The type of products you will be selling, whether or not you’ll be manufacturing it yourself or getting it from a supplier… Once you have a full breakdown of your products and you know exactly what you will be selling than you will be able to easily determine the branding, pricing, shipping marketing etc.

Marketing is essential

Once you know your product, you will be able to determine who your target market is and on which platforms you can reach them in order to drive traffic and brand awareness. There are many marketing tools that you can consider when coming up with a marketing strategy such as Google AdWords, SEO, e-mail marketing and social media marketing.

Know your competitors

Research your competitors and look at what they are doing and what they stores are like. How can your store improve compare to their store, what works for them and what doesn’t? The better you know your competitors the better it will be for you when creating your ecommerce store.

Research shipping and pricing

Factors such as manufacturing or importing should be considered when working out how much your products should cost. Research similar products that your competitors are selling this will give you an indication of what customers are prepared to pay for it.

Website developer

It is an important to factor to consider a website developer to build your store. There’s no use going through all the effort and research and not having a good ecommerce store to sell your products.

So if you thinking of starting an online store make sure to use this as a guideline.