How to Start an ecommerce Business – A Complete Guide

Do you want start Ecommerce Business? Then, you could open ecommerce business easily.

E-commerce means buying or selling products through the internet. According to statistics, this industry i.e.  e-commerce industry is expected to grow  200 million US dollar by 2026. There are different types of e-commerce businesses like B2B , B2C , C2C  e-commerce.  It is also called the internet business.

According to statistics that 40% of worldwide internet users buy the product/goods online via mobile, desktop, tablet or other electronic devices.

Popular e-commerce corporation Amazon (US founded)  is one of the leading e-commerce company worldwide.

Indian e-commerce industry report forecasted that Indian e-commerce revenue is expected to grow US dollar 120  billion by 2021 and internet users will  increase 829 million by 2021 from 636.73 million in FY19. Indian economy is expected to double us dollar 125 billion as of 2017 to us dollar 250 billion by 2021.

What is E-COMMERCE BUSINESS?

E-COMMERCE stands for electronic commerce. When we buy and sell any goods or services online, it is called e-commerce.  It is a medium of trading goods and services between buyers and sellers through the electronic medium.

It is a digitalize exchange of business information using email id, online fund transfer, etc. Online payment is used in the e-commerce business.

Online stores provide many services like home delivery, cash on delivery, 24/7 customer help, exchange policy, return some days.

E-COMMERCE ADVANTAGE

There are the some Important advantage of e-commerce business-

NO Geographic limitation-

if you have a physical store,  you have limited geographic area but  if you have e-commerce business, you can convert it into a global village.

24/7 business-

There is no time opening and closing. Customers can buy any time.

Least capital required-

We can start the business with the least amount of capital because there is no need for the physical store.

Huge variety-

Customers can easily select the product from different products.

Time saving- 

e-commerce saves the time and money of buyers and sellers. Sellers does not need to go to the store physically and also buyers.

Business Models

1) Drop-Shipping Business Model:-

It is a retail business model. It includes the partnership with the whole seller supplier who stocks your raw material, inventory delivers the goods on your behalf directly to the customer.

Benefits of Drop-Shipping Business Model-

Low investment-

biggest advantage of drop-shipping business is that you can open an e-commerce store without any investment. there is no  need for the manufacturing  of goods.

It is easy to start-

It is easy because you can run an online store without any physical product.

Low overhead-

when we open any offline store we need purchasing inventory, storage facility, etc. but in this model, we do not have any need to inventory, managing warehouse, staff, packing and shipping. You can run a business from home.

The Disadvantage of Drop Shipping-

2) Wholesaling and Warehousing –

Whole selling involves purchasing goods in bulk and selling goods  to those who buy the goods  for resale or business use after. Those persons are  called the distributors.

FUNCTIONS OF WHOLESALING-

• Selling and promoting
• Transportation
• Market information

Warehousing-

E-commerce warehouse are the  place where goods are stored on a large scale . this business includes purchasing quantity in bulk ,storing in warehouses and deliver those goods to persons who sell online via the drop-shipping .

why you should open a own warehouse store

• You can deliver the product at  fast speed
• Give good quality of the customer
• Seasonal demand
• Large scale production
• Quick supply

3) Market place business model – 

this is a platform of e commerce operator. We can sell our own products  easily on this  platform.some popular   examples of such e commerce platforms are amazon, Flip-kart, eBay,etc . These are websites where we can register yourself as a seller and build your own store on it. It plays a third party role and takes some consideration in exchange of the services they provide . This business model is  very helpful if we cannot afford our own store . these platforms are  quite popular with  customers so you can sell on this platform  easily. It also provides flexible business opportunities with relatively low start-up costs. All you need to do is just register yourself but make sure that you have a valid  GST number (GSTIN) .  

Top market places where you can register and start the business-

• Amazon
• Flipkart
• Paytm
• Myntra
• Craftsvilla
• Shopclues

For example- if you want to start your business on amazon , just click on this link here  and fill your details like name , GSTIN , address, and many more details . if you do not have your GST number and you are in need of one, contact DG Marketing buzz  team here. 

Advantage –

• It reduces the marketing cost compared to other sales channels.
• It provides the trust between you and the customers.
• They provide transparency like price, availability.
• Impartial reviews on your specific  product may give confidence to the new customers to  buy that  product.
• We can start the business with  least amount of capital.
• These websites provide absolute security from hackers.

Legal requirements to open amazon/ flipkart  e-commerce business-

You must take the action below-

 According to the prediction, 206 million people spend money online. If you want  to open  your own e- store and sell products online , just  follow  these simple  steps-

1) Decide Business name-

business name should be a unique and memorable.  Indian government has a law on this so choose your business name that  do not matches  or resembles with existing  business name. don’t use words which are copyrighted. 

2) Secure the website and domain name –

After choosing  the business name, secure your domain name . it will be good for you  if same domain name is available . if it isn’t then choose the URL that is easy to spell and connect with the business name.

3)  Decide logo name- After that you should decide the logo name and tagline of the business.

4) Decide the business structure and register it-

• A sole proprietorship(no limitation liability)
• Partnership
• LLC(limited liability company)
• Private limited company
• Need the employee identification- you will need EIN no. to open the bank account. Your EIN no. is a social security number.it is a unique EIN number that identifies your business and helps you file important and paperwork.it is very important if you open own store.
• Apply for business licenses and permits – you also need business licenses and permits. You have to check your country, city, and state and apply to see what sorts of sales tax licenses or home business licenses you need before you start to operate.

6)  complete all the Legal formalities (register your e-commerce business)

Payment gateway- payment gateway is a tunnel that connects your bank account to the platform source of the payment gateway is PayPal, stripe and world pay.

E-commerce payment system

E-commerce business uses an electronic payment system. It is very beneficial because we have all the documents digital. There is no paperwork. There are many methods to online payment-

• Credit card
• Debit card
• Smart card
• Electronic fund transfer

E-commerce security system

• Confidentially
• Integrity
• Available
• Authenticity
• Encryption
• Auditability
• Measure to ensure security
• Digital certificates
• certificates

How to start an E-commerce business

• Choose the product-

first of all; we have to choose a product that t we want to sell according to market need and demands. We should consider our product, it should be unique .you should be passionate. Ask yourself what is the  need of product  in the market. We should target a specific market.

• Identify your audience  –

second steps, we should identify the audience on the basis of  age, location, gender, interest,etc. When we launch the product we should consider many things -what will be the  target location , what will be  the targeted  age group , what type of audience will be interested in our product.etc.

• Ask yourself some questions-   
  1. Could you add value
  2. does  it  fulfill customer need

in this step,  ask yourself  what values you can add  for  your  customers that  competitors arent doing it . In this competitive market, there are a  lot of online stores that sells the same product and we have to apply  some different strategy i.e.  we have to make your  product better so that  customer will be  interested in that.

• Research the need for industry

1. Check  Google trends- Google trends is the most important tool. This  tool tells us what’s trending in the market . We can also check  the need of that product which we will sell , we can check whether that product   is  trendy  on or not.
2. find out the right keyword – keywords plays an important role when you can  search on Google. There are different websites where we can find the right keyword.

Websites-

1. Google keyword planner tool
2. Uber suggest
3. Moz
4. ahrefs
5. answer the public –this tool help to find out that customers what actually write when they need.
6. Check on amazon –amazon is the no. one e-commerce platform where all products available in one platform .if we sell anything we should check on the amazon that what is trending, what customer mostly buy and reviews, etc.

• Check your competitor

1. Who is target customers-
2. Check the competitor websites (for e.g.-design, UI/UX, search tool)
3. Which one are social media used (frequency of posting
4. How is the customer support system
5. Email marketing(like promo code)
6. Check the customer reviews

Why it is important-

• Identify our competitors
• What is going on in the industry
• Get some help

• Outline of your e-commerce business plan- you have decided the niche, product and ready to business model .now you should have outlined-

1. Market
2. Products
3. Biggest competitor
4. Business model
5. Brand /company description

Select the name of business-

1. Select the channel-

we do have to decide that what we channel used .what is the channel by which we can send the product to our customer.

1. Prepare to kick-off-     it is the last step-this time is the Launch of the product in the market.
2. Setting up business

Business to business – In b 2 b model

Customer to customer-

Business to consumer-

Consumer to business-

Government to business-

Start a drop-shipping business –

It is a different type of selling system used by many online retailers that do not have physical storage .this model is a product delivery method in which the seller accepts the payment for an order but the customer directly receives the product from the supplier.

This method minimizes the risk for you, as a retailer, because you don’t have to need to purchase the product until it sold.

• Firstly you open the web store with the shopping card accept credit card on your site. You can make an account on shoplift. Shoplift gives you 14 days trial free. Complete
• Secondly, you have to find out the manufacturers and suppliers who can drop ship the product.
• You open an account with the drop shippers you choose.
• You receive the product’s image and information from the suppliers and upload them on your website.
• When the order is placed on your web store by a customer, your store charges them through credit card including shipping fees.
• Then you contact the suppliers via phone, email sharing the customer order, name, and address.
• Once order information shared with your suppliers, they will pack and ship the product to your customer.
• The drop shipper charges you the wholesale price including shipping fee. You have already passed the shipping charges to your customer, so the shipping costs you nothing.

Start the business on already exiting e-commerce website

For example –

1. Amazon

Amazon is an American based multinational company.it is the largest online retailer company. If you register the business on amazon

There are some steps –

• first of all, you have to go to https://services.amazon.com/

• scroll down the page and click “start selling today”

• create your amazon account and fill all the details like name, phone number, email address

• read the amazon seller agreement and business information

• Set up the seller agreement-fill the legal name of the business.

• Write all the information related to business like address, business name, website URL ( if u have the one website), phone number, country.

• Set up the billing method and deposit method-

• Fill the tax information-

• Tell the information related to products what you want to sell 

7) After that

• Flipkart-

https://seller.flipkart.com/sell-online/how-sign-seller-flipkart

Same as you can set up seller account business set up on other platforms.

Start to sell own E-commerce website-

1. Register the domain name and hoisting-

there are different platforms where you can purchase domain and hosting. 

• go daddy,
• Hostinger,
• site ground,
• Google etc.

1. Create a logo- logo helps in branding.

3. Creating the Website- it is time to build your store. The website is very important for the e-commerce business store. After the Purchase of the domain name and hosting, you have to install the word press and make the website. Download the woo-commerce plugin for setting the business and make a website according to you.

There are some steps-

• Select the theme
• Create the product page
• Write the product name
• Write the complete description of the product
• Shoot the professional photos of the product
• Create the company page-

1. a) Create the home page
2. b) About us
3. c) Contact page

• add to the payment page

1. Search engine optimization-

search engine optimization is very important not only for e-commerce but for all websites. This is the best way to grow the business. First of all, you install the plugin of SEO. It comes to the organic traffic on our website.

There are two types of SEO

On-Page SEO –

when you register the website on Google, it’s crawling and indexing.

• Crawling –it means Google scan your website, content
• Indexing- indexing means Google stores your content.
• Headings-when you write the product qualities you should have noticed that headings must be H1, H2, and H3.
• Meta description-in the meta description the
• Ui/UX- you should have a good User interface and good experience of the website.
• Page speed-After making the website you should also check the page speed of the page, click-through rate, etc.

Off-page SEO factors-

1. make internal links
2. Have a good product

• Linked to the social media platform

1. Blogs

Branding of the E-commerce business-

In the crowded place, if you want to differentiate to others, you have to develop the brand identity. In 2019, 65% of customer purchase the product online, a no. that expected growth in 2020 for a successful e-commerce business.

A brand includes the

• company name,
• LOGO
• tagline,
• design,
• Title of the company

E-commerce marketing strategies

• Low-cost marketing strategies-
  1. Optimize your site
  2. Include reviews on product page
• Use content marketing

1. Market on social media
2. Email marketing

• PPC E-commerce marketing strategies-
  1. Google ad word,
  2. install and Facebook ads,
• promoted pins(it is an interest’s PPC system)
• High tech e-commerce strategy-
  1. develop an app,
  2. Target virtual reality technologies

How to market e-commerce business

Marketing plays a very important role in every business. If you want to grow your business, there are many platforms where you can promote the business.

You have to create awareness about e-commerce business. You can market offline and offline of your business. Let’s start

Offline marketing

• Newspaper

• magazines
• use billboard

• TV AND RADIO ADS

• SEND DIRECT MAIL
• Print posters

Online marketing

• Instagram marketing-

on Instagram, there are  1 billion active users. Instagram is not only for  personal use but also for marketing.  Instagram and Facebook are connected  to  each other and it gives the best result in marketing.  you can run  and pay marketing.

 1)Photo ads

2) Video ads

• CONTENT IDEAS-

Top content ideas

• Video content-when we upload the product on the website .we should upload the video of the product and tell them the qualities of the product.
• YouTube video- it gives a higher conversion rate.
• Pin board catalog- e-commerce deals with the large no. of products, so the pin board catalog is a very good idea.
• Newsletters- people are busy. They do not have time to check the daily visiting your store every day. As such newsletters can be a perfect way.
• Upload a beautiful image- because online, where we cannot touch and smell of the product. So the image is a king.
• Webinars
• Email
• Public relations
• In-depth product introduction
• Educate about your niche
• Quizzes
• Fashions magazines
• Colour charts
• Product review
• Guides
• meme

• Facebook marketing-

8 billion users use Facebook every month and connect with family and friends. We can find the customer and aware of the product or service to the customer. We can directly contact to the customer. We can run ads and make the Facebook page.

• Youtube marketing-

most of the people’s time spent on you tube. People like the watch video as a comparison to reading. On you tube more than a billion users are active. YouTube help in the branding of your product and the search engine optimization help on rank no.one on google.in future you tube will be the king of all marketing strategies.

• Email marketing-

It is very effective marketing in today’s time. We can tell that promo codes, offers, discounted are going on this product. From email marketing, we can send unlimited mail to our customers and can be aware if any new product launches features of the product.

• LinkedIn marketing-

on LinkedIn many professionals and businessmen are exits. We can attract business clients, generate leads and it is the best social media platform for content distribution. It is the best platform if you recruit any talent.

There are some steps- Create the page

                                        Find out your target audience

• Google Analytics and Google ads –

Google Analytics is completely free and tells us how much traffic is coming on my website, which time, from where which location i.e. means everything. It analyzes the traffic and identifies the page links your visitor check. We can Google ads set up on youtube and Google.

Thanks .