Insights

Start Your eCommerce Business in 7 easy steps

“Ecommerce isn’t the cherry on the cake, it’s the new cake”

-Jean Paul Ago, CEO L’Oreal

Have you ever had dreams of having your eCommerce business? Did you know that starting an eCommerce business is now easier than before? Are you looking to purchase a ready-made store-in-a-box, add a digital storefront to your existing brick-and-mortar architecture, or set yourself up for an existing market like Amazon, eBay? You can have your eCommerce shop up and running in a single day.

As per research, the eCommerce sales worldwide amounted to 4.28 trillion USD in 2020 and sales are expected to skyrocket to 5.4 trillion USD by 2022.

You can be a part of this!

To simplify your search and help you with foolproof tips to start your eCommerce business, we have compiled a to-do list and must-haves in this piece.

Let’s get started!

How To Start An eCommerce Business

We’ll discuss every point to help you begin your entrepreneurial journey. Keeping things simple, below are some points you need to follow. Let’s learn how easy things are.

Know Your eCommerce Space & Find Your Niche

The first step in learning how to start your online business is performing the necessary research. You have to consider the available options, themes, and business areas.

You need to know these:

• What would your eCommerce business offer?
• Will you be selling services or products?
• Will your products be tangible or digital?
• Will you offer direct products, subscriptions or packages?
• What will be your startup costs?

With huge competition in the market, you need to perform competitor research and probably find a space where you can successfully establish your brand.

Choose a Legal Structure & Business Name

After you have solidified your plan of setting up an eCommerce business, the next step is to get a name for it. You’d want to choose a unique name that resonates with your brand.

Choose a domain name and a legal name such as sole proprietorship, LLP, general partnership or corporation.

Apply For An Employer Identification Number

Next, you need to apply for an Employer Identification Number for your online business. EIN is a 9 digit number that separates your business and personal finances. You should apply for the business tax ID online to receive the EIN.

Obtain License For Your Business

After applying for the EIN, you need to obtain the business licenses to operate legally within your city or state. Depending on where you plan to set up your eCommerce business, you need to acquire a local operating license as well.

Some business licenses may include:

• Sales tax permits
• Signage permits
• Building and construction permits
• Environment and safety permits
• Trade license

Select An eCommerce Platform & Build Your Website

At this point, you have completed the required paperwork to register and legally start your online business. Your website is the landing page of your business. Your customers will see it first and will browse through your products and services.

You need to think about a domain name and an eCommerce platform to start with. Following are some of the most popular platforms to build online shopping sites:

Magento

If you want to customize every aspect of your eCommerce store, Magento is the answer to all your questions. Magento allows you to manipulate every element on your online shopping site. However, you need to have the required technical skills to customize your website.

Shopify

Shopify is a popular eCommerce business website development software that offers a user-friendly environment and a variety of add-ons. You can sell your products using the POS service. Also, it offers tons of themes and templates to meet your custom requirements.

Bigcommerce

Bigcommerce focuses on cutting down the store setup time while offering a smooth onboarding experience. This platform eliminates the requirement of technical knowledge so you can enjoy total control of the store setup. It also offers tons of templates, themes, and other smart solutions to build your eCommerce business website.

Prepare/Source Product Catalogs

After selecting your preferred eCommerce platform and building your website, you need to source the products and services you will be selling. It is up to you to create your products or source them from distributors.
If you are selling your own products, you need to consider the inventory you want to start out with and the startup costs. You need a detailed SEO strategy to improve the customer experience.

Market Your eCommerce Business

Now that your website is up and running with product catalogs, you are ready to serve your customers. To hit those numbers, you need to plan a dynamic marketing strategy, given that the market trends are always changing.

Choose from social media ads to Google ads, campaigns, blog posts, word of mouth and more. You need to optimize your entire website for SEO and take advantage of any marketing tools included in your eCommerce platform. Apart from that, you need to track the specific marketing tactics which are working and which aren’t.

Are The Costs Burning Holes In Your Pockets?

Now that you are all set up to start your eCommerce business, you might be concerned about one important factor – COST!

Several costs will probably burn holes in your pockets. Your startup costs will depend on the type of eCommerce business you are starting, the platform you choose, logistics, inventory management, and several other never-ending factors.

Well, you cannot cut down the costs but can skip the hassle of doing everything on your own. It is always better to outsource your specific business requirements to an IT enterprise like DRC Systems.

The Bottom Line

Our UI UX specialists, eCommerce consultants and domain experts have years of experience in assisting several businesses open and scale their eCommerce portals across the globe. We can help you put that ‘Open For Business’ sign next to your name, design a unique logo that resonates with your brand to help you be a successful entrepreneur. Ready to be your own boss and start your online store? Contact us today!