Starting an ecommerce business can involve both excitement and challenges. It feels like you’ve embarked on a crazy adventure into digital work, where success and profit are your ultimate destinations. But just like any journey you take in life,  to have the best success you need to have a roadmap to guide you along the way. In this blog I’ll take you through all the essential components of launching your ecommerce business, by giving you tips and insights to help you navigate starting an ecommerce store successfully. 

Understanding Your Product

Your products are always the heart of your ecommerce business, so before you dive head deep into the technical parts of your online store, it’s always important to step back and really understand what you are offering. Here are some questions you should ask yourself:

• Problem Solving: What problem or need does your product solve? Who are the people facing this problem?
• Price/Value:Compared to the people in your industry, is your product reasonably priced for the value it provides?
• Uniqueness: What exactly makes your product unique? How does it stand out from competitors?

It’s really important to not sell a replica of another product, you should always be thinking about what other features, benefits or non-toxic ingredients your product could have that would make them stand out from the crowd. A great example of this is the brand HiSmile, they took the simple act of teeth whitening and capitalized off it by creating new and innovative products for whitening teeth, whilst also excluding toxic ingredients used to whiten teeth. Their uniqueness sets them apart and this is what draws in customers. 

How to Set Up Your Store

Once you’ve grasped the essence of your product, it’s time to set up your e-commerce store. Your choice of e-commerce platform can significantly impact your business. You have two main options:

Once you have clearly understood what sets your product apart, it’s time to set up your ecom store. You have a big choice of ecommerce platforms, but what you choose can have an impact on your business. You have two options:

Hosted Solutions: Such as Shopify, Bigcommerce & Square. These all provide an all-in-one solution and can be highly reliable, user-friendly and are awesome for beginners starting out. 

Self-hosted solutions: Such as WooCommerce where you can take full control of your online store and you have the ability to fully customize your website, but this requires someone with a lot of technical coding experience. 

Ensure you have high-quality images, videos, and engaging product descriptions. Consider various payment gateways, including credit card, PayPal, and services like Afterpay and Klarna. Link your email to Gmail for efficient communication and leverage the benefits of Google services for business.

It’s important to ensure you have high-quality images, videos and detailed product descriptions on your ecommerce website. And consider including a range of payment gateways such as card, PayPal and buy now, pay later services such as Afterpay and Klarna. Be sure to link your business email to gmail using the Google services function for the most efficient communication for your business. 

Where to Get Traffic

Driving traffic to your ecommerce store is the life support it needs to stay alive. It’s important to understand the three key areas of traffic (owned, earned and paid) to really leverage it to the best of your ability. You can find more information about my The Traffic Trifecta Framework here to understand it in full depth. 

How to Measure Results

Understanding your store’s performance is vital for making informed decisions and optimizing your strategies. Key metrics to monitor include:

Truly understanding your store’s key performance metrics is crucial to making really informed business decisions as well as optimizing strategies and pivoting if things aren’t working. Here are some key metrics you should monitor along the way:

• Conversion Rate Optimization: Work on enhancing your conversion rate through a range of tasks to turn visitors into buyers.
• Bounce Rate and Exit Rate: Identify the pages on your ecommerce store where visitors often leave your site and start looking into ways to improve them.
• Average Order Value: Encourage customers to purchase more with strategies like upselling, cross-selling or bundling.
• Landing Pages: Optimize your landing pages to increase conversions.
• Sales by Traffic Source: Discover which traffic sources are bringing in the most sales and allocate your resources accordingly (e.g. budget on marketing).

Getting Feedback

Getting feedback from your customers is invaluable, so using tools like Judge.me to collate reviews and social proof for your business is paramount to growing. Ensuring you are also prioritizing outstanding customer service will leave your customers with a positive experience in mind, as well as brand loyalty and trust for your business.

Customer Service / Operations

A really great experience comes with really efficient ways to offer assistance. By implementing tools like a live chat function on your website using platforms like Tidio, Shopify Inbox or Gorgias to provide real-time customer service to the customers that land on the store. If you’d like to know more about how to leverage live chat for your ecom store read or watch my training here.  

Always Learning

Because the world of ecommerce is ever changing, it’s super important to always keep on top of all things ecommerce through listening to podcasts, reading books, watching Youtube videos, engaging in Facebook groups and seeking mentors in the industry that have experience in the field. 

As you begin to embark on your journey in ecommerce, remember that continuous learning and adaptabilities are keys to your success. Always remember to keep your customers at the front of mind when considering new strategies, decision making and product development, with keeping customer satisfaction in mind. With all of this in place you’ll be on the exact path to a growing and succeeding ecommerce business.