How to Start Your E-Commerce Business from Scratch; Build, Launch and Grow Your Store in 2021

E-Commerce is indeed a lucrative business model in 2021 whether you start an on-demand T-Shirt printing business or a dropshipping business holding to a profitable niche, an E-Commerce store facilitating the transactions and sales is probably your best bet in 2021 (especially post-COVID-19).

While starting an online e-commerce business seems to be intriguing it is incredibly important to create a roadmap to assess your progress and decide your following steps towards success. Just like any other retail business, setting your e-commerce store needs planning, backups, research, time, and resource consumption.

Well for you to get a head-start, the article sets a blueprint for starting a business in 2021. The article is shaped based on the inevitable considerations and tasks that you need to complete in order to set up your online business and succeed with it in 2021. There are many ways to start a business, but most of them fail due to lack of knowledge and unforeseen challenges for which they were not prepared. For a sustainable and successful e-commerce business in 2021 here is what you need to consider…

1. Pick or Create A Product

Thievery first step to the ladder of setting up a successful online e-commerce business is deciding the business niche you will be following and what products you will be selling through your e-commerce website. The products you decide to sell have a huge impact on sourcing, profit margin, shipment profits, etc, therefore coming up with the right choice becomes more of a need than a choice.

Deciding a Niche

A dedicated niche helps you create a brand, communicate with a specific audience pool already is interested to know about your product. Holding on to a niche you can show your expertise and establish an authority in your segment. You can filter your product search if you have set a dedicated niche to stick to. After that, you can start searching for the trending products that belong to your niche and catalog them to gain traffic on your e-commerce store.

Re-Evaluating the Product List

Now that you have chosen the niche and the products to sell, you can anytime re-evaluate o see the current scope and demand in the market. It is not mandatory that the product that had high demand a year ago has the same scope in today’s market. Maret changes with people’s preferences and adaptability. 

Obtaining The Products 

Now that you have evaluated the products to sell it is time to source the products. You can either go for manufacturers, suppliers, or wholesalers to get the products for your e-commerce site. If you are an artist or a designer and want to take your passion to a next level then you can purchase base products from the suppliers/manufacturers, work on them and catalog them on your e-commerce site for selling.

The latter is the best sourcing model as you can customize your products and then sell them online under your own brand name. Plus you can go with on-demand sourcing and selling of the products.

Even if you are going with the dropshipping business (which is a highly lucrative opportunity in 2021) you need to have a niche and know the best products to sell. It is highly advisable to go with low-priced goods that are hard to find in the local market and has a good demand (trending products or evergreen catalogs). Is demand product demand enough to launch your e-commerce store? Keep Reading…

Also, Explore  

-> What is dropshipping? 

-> How To Start A Dropshipping Business in 2021? 

-> How To Source Dropshipping Products?

-> 31+ Best Products to Sell in 2021

2. Market Research

Product demand alone does not decide the fate of a business, you need to do market research to figure out the level of competition, product scope and create a master plan that will lead you to success…

KYC – Know Your Competition

No doubt you have fetched the list of bestsellers to start with your online business in 2021 what if you have tough competition in the market. It is impossible to sustain in the market without knowing your competitors. Know your competitors and the products&services they are selling plus their user experience and customer reviews. This will help you distinguish yourself by giving excellent customer services and introducing an element in your e-commerce site that they lack. Know more about smart technology you can integrate into your e-commerce site with Vervelogic. Discuss your plans and get customized solutions from us.   

Create A Business Plan

 Now that you are aware of your product’s market demand and your neck-to-neck competitors, it’s time to accumulate the analysis and make a firm business plan to get started with. This is where actual action takes place. A business plan involves key considerations and what common business mistakes you need to avoid to succeed in your niche.

People often pull back from starting e-commerce in 2021 due to a lack of money. If you are in the same dilemma then there is no need for you to hold back as we have these amazing low-investment business ideas that you can work on in 2021. Explore!

Also Explore: How To Write A Startup Business Plan?     

3. Setting Up Your Business

This is where the action begins, by now you have thorough market analysis and an entire roadmap on how to execute your online e-commerce business, now is the time to set up your online venture.

Step 1 – Name Your Business 

Step 2 – Design A Logo

Step 3 – Create an E-Commerce or M-Commerce Website

Step 4 – Understand SEO, SMO, and Digital Marketing

Step 5 – Choose Your Sales Channels

Name Your Business 

The name of a business is important to legalize your business and for people to get an idea of what your services are. Moreover, while creating an e-commerce site you might want to set a domain name that will also reflect your products and services. Apart from a brand name, a domain name is of equal importance while starting an online e-commerce business. Selecting brand names and getting domain name availability is as easy as ABC with Vervelogic.    

Design A Logo

Apart from the name that represents your business, a logo is a must for any professional startup that is launching in the market. In fact, some logos catch the eyes even before the name does and therefore it is mandatory to have a memorable logo for your online e-commerce business. Again the logo reflects your business. Plan some pro-level creative and appealing logo designing with Vervelogic. Know how logos are designed for a brand?  

Create an E-Commerce or M-Commerce Website

2021 is the time to replace the old school. In response to the old-school retail shops, there are e-commerce stores that are helping customers find and purchase things online from the comfort of their homes. Whether it’s groceries or clothes, artwork, smart gadgets anything can now be purchased and get delivered with a click on customer’s smartphones or tablets. An e-commerce app is an e-commerce utility for smartphone users. The direct app to the store is better for customers to reach, search and pay in just a few clicks. Doing complete shopping from a mobile app is something that is worthwhile for any consumer.

More advanced than an offline retail shop, the e-commerce store has an organized ecosystem with advanced features like voice assistance, chatbots, search bars, dropdown bars, etc. To get assistance with advanced technology integration in your e-commerce site, you can always reach out to web development experts at Vervelogic. Also, know more about M-Commerce from our mobile app developers.

Know-How? 

-> To Start An Online T-Shirt Business with Minimal Investment

-> To Start a Side Venture with a steady 9-5 job too.

Understand SEO, SMO, and Digital Marketing

Developing an e-commerce store is not enough until you are able to fetch traffic to grow your sales. How to get traffic online? Well, there are various digital marketing strategies to promote your e-commerce business online and some SEO practices to enhance the visibility of your e-commerce site on the SERPs. With your own e-commerce store, it is easier for you to establish yourself as a brand, influence people, and promote your services online. Know why you must hire a professional for your e-commerce site’s SEO?

The Power Of Numbers

-> 3 Ways to get SEO Done

-> 12 Digital Marketing Tools for Small Business Success

-> 5 Result-Driven Digital Marketing Strategies for startups.   

-> Digital Marketing + SEO are the Key To Success in Virtual World 

Choose Your Sales Channels 

Where on the internet does your target audience hang out the most? Yes, those are the channels you need to choose to reach out to them and generate sales. Your choice of channels is most likely to rely on the product you are selling and the target audience type. For instance, if you are dealing with B2B buyers then you can’t afford to skip LinkedIn from your advertising bucket list. Vervelogic lets you have it all under one roof. While you are invested in setting the base for your online e-commerce business in 2021, our Social Media Optimization experts will dedicate their time and expertise is enhancing your reach through online channels.

Why You Need SMO: 

-> SMM and SMO are important for your e-commerce website’s success. 

-> Social Media Apps that are certain to fetch sales for your online business in 2021 (choose yours). 

-> 12 Best Digital Marketing Tools to work within 2021.

4. Pre-Launch 

Apart from affirming the availability of the products that you will be selling through your e-commerce website you need to take care of the order fulfillment process and shipment facilities to the local markets in which you will be dealing. After all, in an online e-commerce business, it is all about facilitating everything to the doorsteps. Very much like a dropshipping business the supply chain involves a manufacturing unit, wholesaler, seller, and customer. In this ecosystem, coordination is a must. One must know the source of their products.

Explore Order Fulfillment and Supply Chain.

More than that you need to have clear metrics with which you can assess the milestones and Key Performance Indicators to measure your performance and scope for strategic change in an online e-commerce business. If you are not tracking your performance and marketing endeavors that means you are shooting in the dark without holding any idea of where your business will be seen in terms of sustainability and growth.

Know More About Performance Tracking 

-> 10 Performance Tracking apps to know in 2021

-> The best App Analytics Tools 

As far as the pre-launch period is concerned, for every e-commerce business, it is mandatory to do pre-launch advertisement so that by the time you are ready to launch in the market your target audience is well-versed with your business objective, process, and benefits.

Explore: Promotional Marketing Pre and Post E-commerce App Launch 

5. Post-Launch 

Now that you have launched yourself in the competitive but potential market it is time to get known among your target audience. It is time to focus on digital marketing, SEO, SMO, SMM, and online advertisement for your e-commerce website. Vervelogic helps you with complete digital marketing strategies and planning to enhance your online reach and fetch just the right traffic to your store. Moreover outsourcing your e-commerce app development and digital marketing tasks to a professional app development company prevents you from excessive spendings, resources, and time consumption.

Know More About Marketing Your E-Commerce Store

-> What is demand marketing and how you can convert market demand into sales. 

-> Full-Proven B2B lead generation strategies.

-> Digital Marketing Strategies and Tips for Startups

-> Best Email Marketing Tools to generate sales in 2021

Conclusion – Getting Started With Your Online E-Commerce Store

Mentioned above is the roadmap for how you to start your e-commerce business in 2021. Though silent, the very first step to start your online business is consistency (any business needs it) you should be adamant to succeed and thus make plans for your future steps.

Establishing an e-commerce store is a hell lot of a task and therefore here is the roadmap to keep you on track with your endeavors.

Achieving small milestones needs to be celebrated as this is what keeps you motivated to achieve more. Above everything, take help from the professionals as you cannot afford to sink down on the business you have already invested in. Vervelogic is a standalone IT consultancy and web development firm that will help you with your online e-commerce store establishment.