It’s easy to start an eCommerce. But how to start making money with eCommerce? It seems a bit more complicated…
The Dutch spend more online shopping each year. In the first six months of 2017, there were 92.6 million purchases, amounting to over € 10.66 billion. Meanwhile, nearly 5,000 eCommerce go out of business every year. Hmm… How is that possible? How to make money with eCommerce? Let’s find it out! But first…
What is eCommerce?
E-commerce is the model of buying and selling products or services over the internet.
In this type of business, the customer accesses a virtual store, a marketplace, or a brand’s page on social networks and can:
- Select what you want to buy;
- Choose the best payment method;
- Determine the shipping method to receive the product at home.
There are several business models of e-commerce, and throughout this article, we will introduce you to each.
Business models for E-commerce
There are several business models for e-commerce, each with a bias. For example, you can make a lot of online sales by creating an online store in formats like:
1. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a logistics and e-commerce model that allows you to sell products without having your stock but using the supplier’s stock. This way, after the consumer purchases in your virtual store, you forward the order to your supplier, who separates, prepares, packs, and sends the package to the end customer.
You may also be interested in: How to start a dropshipping business?
2. Crafts: Making and Selling
In crafts, you will have to create products through manual labor techniques. In effect, production will not be in series as in a factory. On the other hand, your products will be original and exclusive, without direct competition, allowing you to sell them at a higher price than industrialized items.
3. Manufacturing
If you have a factory, you can operate in the D2C model, which stands for Direct to Consumer. That is, e-commerce manufacturers can sell their industrialized products to end customers via the virtual store without going through intermediaries such as distributors and resellers.
4. Wholesaling/warehousing
If you do not intend to produce your products, you can buy them from manufacturers and artisans and resell them on e-commerce. The idea here is to buy and store the products in your stock. When a sale is made in your online store, you separate, prepare, pack and ship the product to the end customer.
5. White Label E-commerce
White Label E-commerce is a virtual store platform ready for you to use in your company (services, retail, B2B, and others) or resell using your brand.
The companies that acquire (or outsource) can customize this mold according to their needs and insert their brand.
For example, a textile factory produces identical white t-shirts and resells them to several clothing stores, which insert their label and start selling them as if they produced them. But this applied to the digital and IT universe with the white label virtual store.
14 steps to make money with e-commerce
If you currently have a webshop or are planning to start one, you will undoubtedly be discouraged regularly. Have you finally received an order? Will it be sent back to you? Does the phone ring? Is it a seller who wants to tell his story? If you receive an email, it is a purchase invoice. We can go on like this for a while…
But how do all those eCommerce owners do it? How do they keep their heads above water? Fortunately, it’s not all doom and gloom, and you can make money by having an eCommerce. All you must do is turn the right knobs; of course, we are happy to help you with that.
1. What do you want to achieve?
Maybe you’d like some financial freedom? Or would you like to be at home with your family more often? Or are your ambitions to become the new Coolblue? For everyone, that reason can be different. Ultimately, we all want to have a share we can live on, but how do we ensure we have and keep that share?
Creating an online store from scratch takes a lot of involvement. After all, you will be creating a brand that must be solid enough to compete with companies already on the market. Therefore, please take all the necessary steps and dedicate yourself to following them very calmly.
2. Analyze the trending segments
With the new consumption habits acquired during the pandemic, clothing products, automotive parts, and various accessories continue to rise in the online sales market, in the expert’s view, and should remain for a long time.
3. Choose a niche
The big question is knowing how to position yourself within the market. How do you stand out among the thousands of new stores that pop up every month? The answer is to offer something niche, with a personality that helps you specialize in a particular market. In the clothing sector, for example, it is possible to open a store that sells only plus-size clothing or only to women motorcyclists. Your business needs to become a reference, wherever it fits.
4. Make a plan
Planning is the initial step in creating e-commerce. It defines the purposes of the brand. These decisions must be made based on a very in-depth analysis, which will give security to the entrepreneur, who will know that a market needs to be met.
5. Choose a platform for e-commerce
Choosing an e-commerce platform is essential to offer consumers a good shopping experience. Many platforms are available in the market, but not all have essential functions. Review the possibility of customization; see available payment methods, delivery modalities, and SEO functions.
Not sure how to choose? Read: What is WooCommerce? The Best eCommerce Platform
6. Define what you will sell
Defining the product or service you will sell is essential to starting e-commerce. Of course, this choice must be based on your taste, but it must also be structured according to market demand. See if any product or service is not yet offered or could be sold optimally.
7. Analyze your target audience: What does your target group want?
Do you have enough visitors on your webshop, but nobody buys? Then your offer doesn’t match your visitors, or your visitors don’t match your offer. But how do you find out? Ask your customers why they bought from you and your visitors why they didn’t buy from you. Ask friends, acquaintances, and family who don’t (yet) know your webshop to take a look at it. Are things unclear? Or were they enthusiastic? Listen to your customers and less to yourself. Everyone would buy from themselves.
8. Choose the ideal layout
The layout of your e-commerce must show your brand’s purpose and the characteristics of your product or service. Dedicate yourself to creating a functional and intuitive layout. The difficulty in navigating some web pages makes many users abandon the purchase.
9. Organize the logistics
The logistics organization must be done before you start e-commerce. Look for suitable suppliers, develop the flow of operations and be ready for the day your online store goes live. Over time, you will only have to make minor adjustments to your brand’s flowchart.
10. Develop an inventory
Controlling stock is essential for e-commerce to work as expected. Many brands have specific tools for this. When a sale is made, inventory numbers are automatically updated, reducing manual work and the risk of errors.
11. Invest in a marketing strategy
Starting e-commerce without a marketing strategy is the same as selling behind closed doors. Define the best way to communicate with your consumers and put it into practice even before launching your e-commerce. This strategy has a significant impact on the success of your business.
12. Collect as many email addresses as possible
Email addresses are magical; you want as many of them as possible! But how do you collect these email addresses? Give something away! What is the best thing to give away if you have a webshop? Discount! Determine what an email address is worth to you and give a good discount in exchange for an email address. By the way, this will kill two birds with one stone: you will receive an email address and maybe even a sale!
13. SEO: patience is a virtue
SEO… Don’t start! Why does it take so much time and energy? Well… The word optimization is not in the word SEO for nothing. Are you finally on page 1, number 1, and your competitor knocks you off the throne again? SEO has become a game between competitors, and we all have the same goal: to hold the number 1 position.
How can you increase the gap between your webshop and your competitors? By doing those SEO tips for product pages perfectly! And that means you have to provide all products with unique descriptions, (multiple) images with alt-texts, headings (h1, h2, etc.), and a good URL and title. And you shout that you have “nothing” to do? Oh yes… Also, remember that the keyword you want to be found on should be in the title, description, and URL of both the product page and meta…
14. Be active on social media
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok… Study your target audience’s preferred social network and focus more energy there. Talk to your followers, and make your brand present in the daily life of the customer you want to reach, not just with product offerings. Create content related to your market and engage your customer. The sale will follow.
Could you put it on? That you don’t ”just” add a webshop is now clear… What else are you going to do after reading this blog? Let us know!
