Starting and running an eCommerce business is a dream for many, but it is not as easy as many believe, which is what leads to their failure. Running an eCommerce business is not a four-hour workday in your pajamas. It is careful planning, examining all the details, and being able to see ten steps ahead. It is managing the day-to-day operations while also staying on top of the latest research and best practices. It is utilizing traditional digital marketing while also thinking outside of the box to capture new customers.
Starting any business from scratch is challenging and not ideal for the faint of heart, but creating an eCommerce business is even more challenging due to the sea of competitors. Your customer base is more extensive, but your competition is infinitely larger as well. You have to continually strive to be noticed, go viral, and get your products or services in front of as many people as possible. Here are five tips to help you when starting an eCommerce business from scratch.
1. Invest in the best media production.
Your photos, videos, and social media posts will be what represents your company and your products to the world. They will be the basis of all of your advertising and marketing. While you may be nervous about investing a lot of money at the inception of your business, cutting corners on media production to save money can be devastating to the long-term success of your company. Even if you’re planning on doing a lot of other things in-house, this is one area where it’s worth it to hire a professional. Omnislash Visual provides post-production, animation, content creation, and design for a wide range of businesses. Utilizing a professional production company like Omnislash Visual can take your marketing to the next level with top-quality video production and visual content for promotion.
2. Back up everything.
When running an eCommerce business, you are at the mercy of your data and equipment. Utilizing dedicated servers, removable hard drives, thumb drives, and cloud storage will enable you to thoroughly back-up everything you have from contacts to photos to site data. You can access all of the information you need from anywhere and at any time. You can even buy thumb drives bulk to ensure everyone on your team has them for any project. While many businesses utilize cloud storage, thumb drives are ideal for working on short-term projects, data creation, and visual content because you can back everything up without taking up valuable cloud storage space. By ordering in bulk, you’ll make sure you never run out of usb sticks — you can even have custom flash drives made up to make them personalized and fun.
3. Create an infrastructure so your team can work remotely
Until your company grows to a point you can afford to rent or buy office space, you will need the flexibility and capability of working with your team remotely. If you create the infrastructure for your entire business to be operated remotely, you will have the flexibility of determining what direction you want to go in as you grow. Having the ability to work with a remote team will also widen your options for team members. You’ll be able to hire the cream of the crop regardless of your geographic area.
4. Establish a vision for your company
Too often, businesses are started with no vision. Your vision provides the guiding light for where you see your company in the future. It can be based on what you seek to accomplish with your company, as well as maintaining the roots of why you started your company. The vision statement may seem like a minor factor when starting a business, but it will be the foundation of your growth and your motivation on the days you want to throw in the towel.
5. Create an online community
The eCommerce communities that truly thrive are the ones that successfully establish an online community of followers. They have massive social media networks with active members that interact, comment, react to posts, share posts, and more. They create the force driving the company forward. Creating an online community means continually and consistently engaging with your followers in a meaningful way.
