Following your competitors and aiming only for being online is not the right way you miss a lot of things.
You must have a clear vision and what you are aiming to do before being online.
Here are 6 Steps to do before start your E-Commerce company:
1) Market research
Before taking any step, you should know where you are stepping. Studying the market is an essential step, not an optional like some people think.
You can make a qualitative or quantitative research over the Internet either by a freeway or by simple gifts to motivate people to join your research.
2) Set clear strategy
Have a clear vision: where you want to go? and how you are going there?
First you have to identify your company strategic direction
A- you have existing products and existing markets, so you need to follow market penetration method.
B- if you are offering new products in existing market, you need to follow new products and services method.
C- existing products and targeting new market, you follow market development method
D- new market and new products, you use conglomerate diversification
Once you identify the direction, you put clear simple strategy that understood by everyone in the company.
- Know your target customers well
- Make a persona for your customers imagine: what they like, how they wear, where they like to go.
- Study your target customers’ behaviors online.
What languages they are using, how they talk, how they spend their time over the net, what kind of pages they like, and what tone of voice you should use (talk to them).
- You can use some tools to follow your customers’ behaviors, for example, Facebook gave us many tools to know our customers better and what kind of pages they are interested in.
For example, you can target girls between18 and 20 years old who are interested in IT pages. Other analysis, you should do manually like your customers’ comments and interactions.
- Social baker and Google also are making our life easier; every day they offer more features.
- Study well where your customers spend more time over your website and analyze why.
3) Build your website
Now you have determined your strategy, know your customers and how you are going to handle them, and build a good website.
- There are a lot of websites offering free templates and very easy to build your websites, like WordPress and magneto.
- It is important to build the website architecture before you start.
- Simply, Website architecture is the chart for your website, how many pages, what pages will lead to where and how many clicks for your customers to reach their distention.
- Your website colors and themes should be the same as your brand identity.
- Brand identity is very important to use same colors, font and logo on every single media, so your customers can know you from the colors or the font.
- The content website is not only about specs, pictures, and prices but also how you are going to present your product and service.
- After you know now the right tone of voice to use with your target customers, you write the content in a way and language that they like to read.
- Updating your website is not an option; it is a long going process.
4) Logistic
Having e-commerce website is not an online process only.
- You have to build your logistics and offline process before you start.
- Be sure you are going to achieve what you promise your customers.
- Be sure of products quality in your inventory good documentation of quantity to avoid sales without having stock
5) Control and monitoring
Put clear KPIs for every step in the selling process and draw a work process cycle which is clear and be shared with all team members.
For example, how you are going to update the content.
What shall your team do after receiving an order?
Confirmation process with customers.
Order handling and logistics process.
What is the process for returns and cancelation?
Documentation is very important, make your own manual, write down all the process, the correct action you took towards the problems and how you solve them
6) Measuring and analysis
This step also neglected by many people. How are you going to know that you have made it or not?
Measure how many you sold, what items, and why these items are more than others
What days and what time purchases are made? What are their demographic and areas of residents?
Google is a good tool in collecting information but you cannot depend on this tool only till now you have to do some manual work.
Collect all these information and start to analysis, hear and observe your customers behaviors and take the corrective actions
By the End of the Day Before starting your Company Don’t miss to :
- Study your targeted market & Audience well
- Set clear vision and strategy
- setting smart objectives for your business and achievable plan
- Start Building your embassy ” Your website”
- Act from point of Project management in your logistic
- Always Measure and analysis to be always in the right track
- In all your process don’t miss control over all your plan and activites.