Planning To Sell Online: A Complete E-commerce Business Guide.
Everyone wants to live a happy and successful life. And people struggle a lot to have such a life. But currently due to the COVID pandemic crisis, there is a great fall in the economy because of which many companies have laid off their employees. People have lost their jobs. Even the people with a new business startup has affected a lot, as it was their initial stage of business.
Due to the pandemic, many businesses have gone online. People are operating their businesses digitally. But small business owners are suffering a lot in terms of onboarding their business digitally. Due to a limited budget or risk of investment, they are not stepping forward to enter the digital world.
During this pandemic, we had run a survey for the sellers in order to know the percentage of the sellers who want to sell online and what are the difficulties business owners or small sellers are facing to enter the digital world. According to the survey, 80% of the sellers want to sell online, and out of which 56 % of the sellers are facing problems due to lack of E-commerce portal knowledge, because of which sellers are not able to sell online.
No Need to worry, now you can also able to sell online.
This article is for Manufacturers, Suppliers, and Other Sellers who want to sell Online, but due to incomplete or limited knowledge, they are not able to enter the digital market. Some of the sellers even might have started online selling, but they might be facing challenges in Product Research, Marketing, Incomplete Platform Knowledge, Sales Conversions, and so on.
But Before starting an online business, your mind should be clear enough to adopt the changes in the business. There are too many sellers involve in online selling, which will lead to competition for your business. To grow in this competition, you need to think out of the box and deliver a quality service to your customers. For growing in the competition, you should have a clear mindset.
1) Mind Set for Starting E-commerce Business
Before entering into the E-commerce Business, there are few points that the sellers need to be set in their minds.
#Time & Hardwork
As the online market is filled with competition, so to fit you in this competition, time and hard work both are very necessary for this business.
Invest your time in learning new techniques for online selling. Know your target audience for your products. Create the individuality of your brand in the market.
#Patience
Patience is very important in online business in terms of sales. As there are lots of competitions in the market, so it is not necessary that you will get the sales daily. There are always ups and downs in every business. Do not panic, stay calm, and be motivated. Focus on your goal by having patience.
#Consistency
There should be a consistency in your work. Focus on providing quality products & Services. Try working harder, get out of your comfort zone, because your comfort zone will take you nowhere. But there is always a result of your hard work.
#Returns
Do not get disappointed if your product gets a return. There are 2 factors for the returns of the products
1) Product & Service Quality
2) Customer behavior
If the product gets return due to poor quality, try to improve the quality of your products and provide a quality service to your customer
If the Customers dissatisfied with the product and raised the returns request, try to contact the customer and resolve his/ her issue.
Always keep your Customers Happy by providing a Quality Service.
Let’s start by knowing the basic meaning of E-commerce.
2) What is E-commerce?
In simple words, E-commerce means selling products or services online through digital platforms.
There is 2 type of module of Ecommerce, which are as follows:
B2B- Business to Business
In B2B the selling of products or services is between one business to another business. For example Indiamart, Alibaba….
B2C- Business to Customer
In B2C the selling of products or services is between Business to Customer. For example Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm….
In B2C Module you will be learning about online selling via B2C platforms such as Amazon, Paytm, Snapdeal, and other channels.
3) What is the Cost Involved
There is not much of the cost involved in E-commerce Business. At the very start, you need to apply for GST No, as it is mandatory for every online platform. The Cost of the GST is not more than RS 1200/-. You can get your GST from C.A or from your nearby GST office. It takes around 1 week to get the GST Registered Certificate. Then you have to monthly file your GST return as per your sales. GST Filing is done by C.A or it is also done from GST Office. You can also file the return by yourself, but first, you have to get yourself trained on GST Portal.
4) How to Select a Product for starting an E-commerce Business?
Product Research is the most important part of E-commerce Business. There are a few top-selling categories in which you can start your online Business. Below are the few top-selling Categories.
Baby Products
Home & Kitchen
Home Furnishing
Pet Supplies
Jewelry
Books
There are different factors involved when it comes to product research. The product research for an E-commerce business is selected as per the demand of the products in the market. If you have found out a particular product with huge demand, start looking out for the manufacturer for those products from your city or state
If you are already a manufacturer, then well and good. You just need to focus on production.
What if you are not a manufacturer, supplier, or wholesaler? Where you can get a product from?
Taking into consideration the above category, try to find out the manufacturer from your city or state who deals in this category and who can provide you the products with the best price and quality. If you purchase the product from another city or state, the cost of import tax will be levied on your purchase, which will again lead to a higher price for your products.
Why Purchase from Manufacturer?
Purchasing directly from the manufacturer reduces the extra cost as there is no middleman such as a supplier, wholesaler involve in your purchase. Always purchase the product with the invoice bill, as it will be very useful while filing the GST Return.
Once you have selected your products and manufacturer, you can start with the Online selling Business.
Even if you are not having much budget to purchase from the manufacturer, you can also purchase from a Wholesaler or Supplier.
Every product needs an Identity and that identity is known as Brand. You should choose a unique brand name for your products.
5) How to Choose a Brand Name
A Brand is an identification for your products, that makes you stand different from other seller brands. Brand names should be unique and related to your products. It should be easy to pronounce in one go. As your brand name will be an identity for your products. You can also register your brand by applying for Trademark Certificate.
A Trademark certificate is a certificate for your brand. If your brand is a registered brand, no one can misuse your brand. And if someone tries to misuse, you can take legal action against that person or individual with the help of a Trademark Certificate.
The cost of the Trademark Certificate is approx. Rs 5000/- to Rs 7000/-.
There are various service providers, who will help you to get a Trademark Certificate for your brand.
A seller with a good enough budget can apply for Trademark If needed. But seller with a low budget or who can’t afford can sell your products without brand registration. But see to it that your brand name should be unique.
Note: Do not select branded products to sell on Online Platforms. Branded products such as Peter England, Reebok, Levi’s, and other brands. For selling branded products you need to get a brand authorization letter from the respective brand owner. Without the Authorization letter, you will be not allowed to sell branded products.
Once you selected the product and brand name, then you need a channel or platform to sell your products.
6) Best Platforms to Sell Products Online?
To start selling your products online, you need to select the best online platform such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm, and so on.
Amazon is India’s No 1 B2C eCommerce platform. Currently, around 2.5 million sellers are selling on amazon. Amazon is a very user-friendly portal and 90% of the sellers have started their online business from Amazon, as there is least documentation involve in amazon seller registration.
Apart from Amazon, portal such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm, and other e-commerce platforms will also help you to grow your online selling business.
Start selling your products on Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm for generating more sales for your products.
To sell on the above platforms, you need to get well versed in all channels. If you want to learn about the platforms, you can contact Gifteria E-commerce Solution.
You can also create your E-commerce website and sell products from your website. But in the Initial stage selling product from your website is not a good option. You will not get many sales as compared to the Online platform. Online Platforms like Amazon, Flipkart has already built their trust in the mind of customers. The chances of fraud or risk of purchasing are very less on the online platforms as compared to your website. There is a middle man between you and the customers, which reduces the risk of Fraudulent, because of which customers do not think much about risk while purchasing from online platforms.
If you are having a good enough budget for creating your eCommerce website, you can create your SEO Friendly website and start promoting your website by providing different deals and offers to the customers and building your trust in the online market. Simultaneously sell your products on the online platform, as it will help to build up your brand name & product in the market.
A seller with a Low budget, should focus on selling products through an online platform. Built-up your store or brand by providing quality products and services to your customers. Once you start getting a good no of sales, you can go for your E-commerce website/store creation.
What you will prefer Online Platforms or Personal E-commerce Websites? Let me know in the comment section.
7) How to Add/List Products on Platforms or Website?
To add products on platforms or websites, first, you need to maintain a Meta Datasheet where you can save your product details and refer the same sheet for listing. Below are the points you need to maintain, which will be useful for all portal listing.
#SKU: It is a unique code for every product and it is only for the reference of the seller. (e.g : ABC01)
#Brand Name: Unique brand name for your products (Identity of the product)
#Title Name: It is the title of the product which helps to rank on the platforms (For e.g. Suppose your product is White Plain Shirt, then you should create your title like, Peter England Men’s Best White Cotton Plain Mandarin collar Shirt L Size) (Brand+Gender+Material+Pattern+Color+Feature+Product+ Size)
#Description: Description should be created with all the details of the products like their features, uses, care instruction. In short, you have to mention each and every detail of the products, so that the customers can understand well about the products. Use SEO friendly keywords in the description, as the product ranking is as per the keywords in titles name, and description.
Note: On Amazon, you need to add the features or products details in bullet points (Maximum 5 Bullet Points)
#Images: Images are more important in online selling. Your images should be as per the guidelines of the platforms. It should be attractive as customers visit your product page by looking at the images. Add at least 3 to 4 clear images with different angles. For creating an image link, you can use a dropbox.
Above are the mandatory details, that need to be maintained for every product in every category. Apart from this, you also need to add additional details as per the platform's mandatory requirement.
Once your meta datasheet is ready, you can start listing or adding products on the platforms.
There are also freelancers available in the market, who provide listing services at 10 to 15 Rs per SKU depending on the number of listings.
8) How to Create Content for the Products?
Content is the information or something that is expressed through writing, or by creating an article to acknowledge the audience. Content is also known as “KING” in the digital marketing world.
For creating content for the products, make use of SEO friendly keywords related to products or services. As you are selling products online, you need to convey the information or details of the products through content writing i.e description of the products. The product description should be created by the following information
Brand details: The description should contain brand information like, what is your brand about? What type of quality products or services you provide? How the product is manufactured?
Product details: Description is the only way of letting know the customer about the details of the products. Mention as much information about the products like product features, its uses, its benefits. The benefit is the most important details which need to be mentioned. As customers prefer to look at, what benefit they will be getting from the product.
As mentioned earlier, the description should be SEO friendly. Below are the few tools, which will help you to find Seo Keywords.
(KeywordTool.io, Google Auto Suggest, AnswerThePublic, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, UberSuggest).
Now moving on to the sales, visibility of the products is very important to let customers know about your products.
Online sales depend on the number of clicks, page visits, reviews on your products. To increase visibility or to generate sales, Social media is the best platform, as there are millions of users on Facebook. Select your target audience from these millions of Facebook users and increase your sales.
Let’s move forward to know in-depth about the visibility and promotion of the products.
9) How To Increase Visibility Through Promotion and Generate Sales?
Once the products are listed on an online platform or website, then it’s time to showcase your brand in the online market. Showcasing your brand or store in the online market promotion plays a vital role.
There are two types of promotion in the Online Market
- Paid Promotion
- Cost Free Promotion
Paid Promotion
The promotion for which you are investing a certain amount for promoting your products or services is known as Paid promotion.
Paid Promotion Includes:-
· Facebook Ads
· Amazon Campaign for Amazon Products & Brand
· Flipkart Campaign for Flipkart Products or Brand
· And so on….
#Facebook Ads
A Facebook ad is the best platform for promoting your business, products, or services. Facebook is a social platform with millions of users, which becomes easy to target audience for your products because of the huge no of Facebook users.
Most of the sellers use Facebook ads for promoting their products. You can generate a good number of leads or create sales conversion. Facebook ads allow you to select your target audience, the country, or the city in which you want to display your ads. You can also set age criteria, to what age of people your ads should be visible. Facebook ads allow you to create a narrow as well as a broad target audience for your products.
#Amazon Campaign for Products or Brand
Amazon has its own Campaign option where you can promote your Amazon products or brand. For promoting a brand you need to be a registered brand owner on Amazon. For a registered brand owner, you need to submit the Trademark Certificate.
Amazon Campaign helps your products to rank by showing as sponsored Products on the Amazon website. It helps to get an impression and generate sales for your products
The charges for running the Sponsored ads are deducted from the sales amount if you have created your campaign through the amazon backend panel.
Amazon has its own “Advertising Console”, it helps sellers to drive traffic on their products page and brand page, which makes the sellers stand out against their competitors.
If you want to know more about boosting sales on Amazon than refer to this article: Top 8 Tips To Boost Sales On Amazon
#Flipkart Campaign for Products or Brand
Flipkart Campaign is the same as the Amazon campaign. The difference in the Flipkart campaign is, you need to add credit in the Flipkart account for running a campaign. While in amazon, the campaign amount is deducted from the sales. The minimum credit that needs to be added in Flipkart is around Rs 1000/-
Flipkart Campaign helps to showcase the product to the target customer, which leads to an increase in sales conversion.
#Other Promoting tools
There are other paid tools by which you can invest and generate sales for your products. But the above 3 paid promotion channels is enough for generating sales. Facebook Ads play a major role in paid promotions. It can generate a number of sales if you have selected a proper target audience.
Cost Free Promotion
The promotion for which you no need to invest any amount for promoting your products or services is known as Cost Free Promotion.
You no need to invest any amount, but you need to invest your time. As everybody knows, nothing comes free of cost.
Cost Free Promotion Includes:-
· Social Media Marketing
· Email Marketing
· Blogging
#Social Media Marketing
Social Media Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can help you to generate sales for your products or services.
How to Generate Free Sales from Social Media Marketing?
There are huge numbers of social media users in India. In order to generate sales, create a group or account on Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms in the name of your store or brand. Build your account by adding interesting posts related to your products. Daily 3–5 posts on social media which will help to keep you engaging with your followers.
Benefits of Social Media Platforms
> Brand Awareness
> Reaches to your target customer (Followers)
> Customer Engagement
> Conversion of sales
> Awareness of newly launch products via Post
> Increases view for your products
As it is free promotion, you need to daily invest at least 1–2 hrs a day in social media promotions.
#Email Marketing
The leads or sales which are generated by sending mail are known as Email Marketing.
-How to Generate Sales or leads by Email Marketing?
For email marketing, first, you need to create your Mail List for sending the mail to your audience.
For creating a mail list, you need to create your customer avatar to identify your target audience.
-What is Customer Avatar and how to create it?
Customer Avatar is a questionary bank, which is created to know your target customers.
Customer Avatar is created by asking questions relevant to your products or services to the people to know, who is your target customer to generate sales conversion. You can use google forms for Customer Avatar
Refer to “Customer Avatar” for reference.
The Customer Avatar will help you to get your email list and with the help of Email marketing tools such as Mailchimp, Convertkit, you can reach your target audience by writing engaging content with the product link to Buy.
Pinterest is an image sharing and providing information on the worldwide web using Images, GIFs, or Videos.
You must have noticed that whenever you have searched any images or products on google there is also a search result of Pinterest. In the same way, if you want to get your product searched on google, create your Pinterest account and add your product images with information along with the product link, so that if anyone likes your products will buy it.
#Blogging
A Blog is an information or discussion sharing website which is created to publish your interest or related to any Niche
In blogging, you can create your own blog and write engaging content that can share information about your products or services. While creating a Blog you need to do all the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) part in order to rank your blog on google. Blogging helps to bring awareness of your products or brand or any information. You can also run an affiliate blog and earn money from it.
Above are the methods that will help to generate sales. Now coming to the point of delivering the products to the customers. Let’s discussed the dispatching part.
10) Order Dispatch & Delivery Rate
When it comes to online shopping, every customer wants their purchased products to reach them as early as possible. And to satisfy the customer, it is the seller's responsibility to deliver the order on or before the stipulated time.
Whenever sellers are selling products on an eCommerce platform or website, see to it that the product dispatch SLA should not be more than 3 days. Try to process and dispatch the order as early as possible. A quick dispatch rate leads to an increase in sales and sellers rating.
Track your order till it reaches to the customers. Followup with the courier partner for the delivery of the products and ask for the POD (Proof of Delivery) once the product is delivered.
Below is the E-commerce Blueprint, that will help you to understand better.
Conclusion
Overall E-commerce business is a very successful business only if you are too serious about devoting your time & money to the business.
Most Billionaires got rich by selling products and services.
If they can, why can’t you
I hope, you must have found this article useful for starting your E-commerce business. I would like to hear from you.
If you need any guidance or services in the eCommerce business, you can contact us at gifteriaecomm@gmail.com.
If you want to learn in-depth about marketing, then refer to the below article: The Secret Keys To Become a Successful Marketer
So guys let me know your view on this article in the comment section.
And thank you for giving your valuable time to reading this article:)
“Wishing you a Great Success ahead”
