image: JamFactory

Starting an online store is a huge step in your life. It takes plenty of your time, efforts and, most of all, commitment. How you run it can determine its success (or failure), so invest more time and thoughts into planning it. Remember, failing to plan means you’re planning to fail.

When you are starting an online store, there are things you need to consider. Questions you need to answer. Try to look at these questions one by one, do the research needed to answer each thoroughly.

What products am I selling?

Three most common products sold online are: physical goods, downloadable digital and services.

Determine which you are going to sell on your online store because it will affect the whole process of building and launching one.

image: JAMES STORIES

The best products to sell are the ones you are passionate about. However, you might find those products are available on other online stores. If that’s the case, you can:

• Offer benefits your competitors have not offered
• Offer complementary products so your online store can be a one-stop

Where to get my supplies?

You need reliable suppliers. It means they have to meet at least these requirements:

• They can provide you the products you need within promised time
• They can provide you the best deals
• They can deliver the products as promised qualifications

You might also want to check how long they have been running their business, what their customers say about them and prices compared to their competitors.

Mind you that it is best to have fewer suppliers so you can buy in bulk (it will save more money), but do not rely on one supplier to keep your supplies in stock.

Whom am I selling my products to?

For certain products, the answer to this question might take simple common sense. You will not sell cool tees with rock band images on it to 40-year-old moms, but those moms would definitely want cleaning products for their kitchens.

However, other products might require further market research. If you sell sets of icon, who would buy them?
You can obtain information for the research from:

• Search engines (just search keywords like ‘buying selling sets of icon’)
• Your competitors
• Related forums (for sets of icon case, you might want to check design or artwork forum)
• Magazines/e-zines, especially those covering marketing and e-commerce

What are my marketing strategies?

Starting an online store is not different from starting any other business. You need killer marketing strategies.

Fortunately for you, online marketing are not ‘cost killer.’ With a well implemented and search engine optimized site, you can have your online store on the first result page of search engines.

image: b2bcollection

You might also need to create a buzz about your brand via social media, most of them are free. And there are many online advertising networks you can join with few bucks, some of them even require you to pay only if your Ads are clicked. Even creating marketing e-mails and newsletters is not that hard, you can find plenty resources online that will guide you.

Good reads on this subject:
Advertise Your Online Store with Online Advertising Networks
Let Your Online Store Rule the Search Engines with SEO
The Benefits of Social Media for Online Stores

How to deal with storage?

You need a reliable storage for your products if they are physical goods. But even if you are selling downloadable digital, you need to ‘keep’ them in private, secure server. Plan this ahead so you will not have to deal with unnecessary problems caused by bad storage conditions.

How to deal with payment?

Some shopping carts have payment gateways integrated. That is why you should choose the shopping cart allowing you to have on your online store various payment gateways. You might need to set up accounts on these payment gateways.

Selling the products locally might require a local bank account reliable enough for money transfer. Pick the bank with many features, including mobile services, and many customers. It is best if you have at least 2 accounts: one is for business alone, another is for private purpose.

How to deal with shipping?

Plan how you are going to ship your products locally and abroad. List the rates based on weight.

Many customers have been complaining about the delay and the broken products during shipping. To avoid such problem you need to find the most reliable shipping service, even if it might cost you more.

How to deal with customer feedbacks?

Customers might ask or complaint about your products. Learn how to deal with every feedback. Have a good record on those feedbacks. You can summarize them in a FAQ section of your online store. Inside the FAQ you should also provide how-to’s such as how to place orders, how to pay, how to confirm payment, how to get the best deals, etc.

image: Thiemo Gillissen

Sometimes you receive good reviews on your products. Use these for your benefits. Good review is in fact one of the best classic marketing strategies as it provides word-to-mouth with high value in selling points.

How to deal with after-sales (i.e. products return, money back guarantee)?

Some customers might want to return the purchased products. You need to be concise and fair in dealing with such situation. It is best to post a policy on the subject, describing the requirements of product return, how to return them and, if there is any money back guarantee, how your customers can get refund.

Who will help me out?

Yes, you might run an online store alone. But along with the growing business, your 24/7 might not be enough. Smart work is better than hard work. So if you need to, hire staff. Planning this ahead can be beneficial.

Even if you can’t afford to hire anyone right now, have a list of positions you might need to delegate later. Write down all job descriptions of each position. And if you could, write all names of people you know that you think might be able to handle the jobs. When the time is right, you can start contacting them. Or advertising vacancies for those positions.

Positions/jobs you might consider to delegate:

• Core team (the ones producing the products to sell)
• Ads and marketing
• Customer service
• Stock and supplies management
• Accounting
• Social media handling
• Copy writing

Is there any other income source I can expect out of my store?

A good thing about online stores is that they are basically websites. As any other website, you can put Ads all over it. You can, too, be an affiliate for other online stores.

Having ads on your online store provides you additional income, but you have to remember that your own brand matters above anything. If you write a paid blog post about a brand new PC while your store is actually selling health products, it might hurt your brand. But if you put up an Ad banner about the WHO health campaign, it will boost your brand positively. Just be mindful when dealing with Ads.

Okay, I get all points. What next?

Keep Learning
Internet is a fast lane. It changes faster than real life. Yesterday we have Friendster, next thing you know… BOOM! We have Facebook. Yesterday we have Plurk, next thing you know… BOOM! There’s Twitter. You need to keep up with all these technologies and applications so your online stores will not be outdated.

Prepare yourself to learn everything new everyday. Subscribe to every sites and blogs about e-commerce and online marketing. Check your readers regularly, read as much as you can. Engage to your friends in various social networks. And most of all, engage better to your customers. A good business means a good customer service, nuff said.

The Hard Truth
As any other business, you have to be honest with yourself. It takes a really long learning curve. And you might not see any profit coming in first weeks, or even first months.

Be patient and be true to yourself. Building a store and its brand awareness takes time. However, if you are patience and learn to improve the way you run your business everyday, you will enjoy the benefits eventually. Most of all: Have faith in your guts.