A Guide to Getting Your Small Business Into E-Commerce

Welcome to the exciting and dynamic world of online commerce!

14:55 30 January 2020

We'll assume in this article that you already have a business plan, some prior business experience, and are motivated to work hard for your dreams.

Well, it's actually not as hard as you may be expecting. The good news with eCommerce is that it's a remarkably low-overhead enterprise. You can literally run a home business off your kitchen table and a laptop. Web hosting plans are cheaper than your monthly coffee budget. We'll go over some basic eCommerce building blocks, potential business models, and customer retention strategies for small businesses.

The building blocks of eCommerce

A starting entrepreneur should be open to the option of outsourcing at a later point. Hiring some outside help will let you delegate the parts that you're not as experienced in, while freeing your up to focus on the parts of your business vision that emphasize your strengths. The most thriving online marketplace for hiring freelance labor is UpWork, where you can find:

• graphic designers
  
  
• content marketers
  
  
• website developers
  
  
• virtual assistants
  
  
• social media managers
  
  

You may, of course, start out doing everything yourself, then later start hiring outsourced help when the business is underway.

You will need a website: Your own domain name, registered to you for a small annual fee, and a hosting provider offering a right-sized package. All hosting accounts come with everything you need to set up an online store.

Website software essentials include:

• CPanel - the interface from which you will manage the site
  
  
• WordPress - The world's most popular Content Management System (CMS)
  
  
• Shopping apps - These can be Magento for a stand-alone eCommerce portal, or WooCommerce, which is a WordPress plugin.
  
  
• Email accounts - For customer contact and perhaps newsletter marketing
  
  
• FTP accounts - In case you have to move large files around, or for in-depth website maintenance
  
  

In addition to the root website, you will want a social media presence. Once your site is online, start accounts with your company branding on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at the minimum. You may also consider accounts on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, or other popular sites depending on your business niche. Remember, you want to go wherever your customers go.

eCommerce business models:

Some tried and true online commerce models include:

Service providers - The product you're selling is your skills and expertise. Any service that can be performed remotely works here.

Physical shipping - Selling custom-printed Tshirts, hand-painted miniature figures, or your secret recipe hot sauce. This is a kind of artisan boutique store model.

Dropshipping - Why keep your own inventory? In dropshipping, you accept the customer's order and direct it to your wholesale distributor, with instructions to ship the item to the purchaser with your return address on it. What you bring to the table is your marketing and knowledge of the customer's needs.

Affiliate marketing - You don't directly sell anything here but collect commissions for referrals when your visitors use your link to buy something from a third party. Again, you handle the marketing and collect a fee from others' sales.

Media goods - This covers digital music, movies, a monthly magazine, graphic designs, photography, video games, modeling, or any subscription service for content.

SaaS and B2B - "Software as a Service" and "Business to Business," where your customers are other businesses. A huge eCommerce industry with many lucrative opportunities.

So while we assume you have your industry picked out, there may e more than one form your business model can take. You can also diversify into several models. The hot sauce storefront can lead to publishing a cookbook, affiliate marketing for retail kitchen gadgets, or consulting for restaurants and catering services.

Customer acquisition and retention

We're talking about marketing and customer relations.

Reach out through your blogging platform and social media accounts. Promote your business by sharing helpful information relating to your industry, talk about your vision for providing excellent service, or tout the features of the products you're selling. While online marketing comes at a low cost money-wise, it is a long-term commitment that never ends.

Once you have customers, you will need to collect and study their feedback. Quickly fix all issues and complaints that come up. Promote after-sales with a sign-up newsletter, or promotional offers for future add-ons and upgrades. Offer loyalty programs with discounts or special deals for repeat customers, or incentives for referrals.

Don't be shy about paid advertising as well. Most web host providers have a coupon or two for a run of free ads with an ad network. Sometimes a business needs that small kickstart.

Good luck out there, and explore all the possibilities of eCommerce.