Setting up a business to work primarily online makes sense for a lot of people. Your reach is far further than just setting up in a physical location and you can appeal to multiple countries and buyers. However, it does present a logistical challenge for many small business owners.
There are multiple facets of product transport that you need to keep in your mind, along with generating the actual orders in the first place. What works for you will differ depending on how you run your business, but these tips can help give you more to think about and support you in building a brilliant E-commerce business.
Watch Out For Perishables
Anything can be shipped and moved around the world in pretty fast times these days. However, perishables can be quite nightmarish. If they arrive mouldy or messed up then you’re going to lose custom.
Not only that, but when they arrive they need to have some life beyond arrival. You need to take great care with food sourcing if you’re going to be drop shipping or selling perishables.
It might be that you have to put limits on transport distance, or look for different suppliers in each country, however, if you make the product yourself then it’s going to be a lot harder. If you’re looking at products which fall into perishable, make sure you give them some extra thought just in case.
Making Sales Happen
There are some tried and tested methods in terms of pulling in sales and making those all important deals with your clients. How you approach these will depend on the way your industry usually deals with sales.
Some focus on data enrichment in terms of marketing while others will try and build email lists using brilliant content on their websites. SEO is huge for an online business but you can drive traffic using social media too.
There are different methods available for you, but the ultimate key is in making people click buy. The best way to do this? Having a brilliant sales funnel on your website which naturally leads them towards parting with money and buying what it is you offer.
Reputation Matters
To keep the business rolling you need to build a stellar reputation. Your delivery needs to be on time, so use good couriers. You must ensure that your packaging is good to protect the packaging.
If you’re selling on places like amazon, or alibaba, you need to ensure you get some great reviews to lend the consumers confidence. Once you start building a reputation for a great website, good delivery time scales and top tier customer service you’ll be able to start seeing your E-commerce website start to take off, meaning you can happily add more products and categories.
Remember, bad reputations can happen pretty easily but you need to see it as an opportunity. If you get some bad reviews, you need to ensure that you follow up and act on them. Bad reviews are annoying, but they’re way worse if you don’t act on it. Show people you care for the best chance of success.
- DISCLOSURE – This post has been written by an outside source
