So, you have your heart set on starting a new business venture. You want to sell your product online, and you want to know the best practices to put into place. It can be daunting when starting your first Ecommerce business, but rest assured, you have picked one of the most exciting and straightforward ways to conduct business. Ecommerce has many positives of note, the ability to sell your product 24/7 (against brick and mortar stores), the relatively low cost to start, and the surge in online purchasing, to name but a few.

When starting your first Ecommerce business there are a few things that can stand you in good stead, and are worthy of consideration before you take your first steps into the online business world. The first being, naming your business.

What's in a name?

It may sound like an obvious piece of advice, but you really should name your business and products carefully, and not just for the obvious reasons. Something that is often overlooked, is the availability of URLs, social media platform user names, and email addresses. Registering a company name without checking for availability elsewhere can land you in a frustrating situation down the line, where you end up changing your brand name, or paying a large sum to procure the website or Twitter account from someone else. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and any other platform you think you might want to use at some point in the future should be snapped up at the same time that you register the company name. There are people out there who make a living from buying and then selling company user names, once a less savvy entrepreneur has become successful enough to appear on their radar. Make sure you are one step ahead of them.

Get social

Once you have your business up and running, you need to get the word out to your potential customers. While there are ways to advertise online (which we will get to later), social media platforms have matured extremely quickly into some of the most important outlets for any company looking to make a name for itself online. Conventional Facebook and Twitter adverts aside, merely posting updates about your products serve as adverts within themselves, and with the nature of social media being ‘sharing’, you can often end up with your customers advertising on your behalf if you play your cards right. There are many examples of social media experts online that can school you on the nuances of each platform, so use this information to familiarize yourself with the platforms that work for you.

Advertise

Whether it is through Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Twitter or Instagram, get yourself an advertising plan. Look at your core demographic, and find out where they are most likely to see your ads. Facebook ads are particularly useful for two big reasons. Firstly, Facebook has 2 billion active monthly users, which makes it the largest social network in the world. Secondly, when purchasing Facebook ads, you get the ability to ‘drill down’ so deep into their user base that you can target adverts directly at the people who are most likely to respond to them in a positive manner. Twitter, Instagram,and many other platforms have their own unique appeal for an Ecommerce business, so use the platforms that are likely to garner the most traction for you and your particular product.

Sniff out the competition

Before you even register that business name, you really should have looked at your own particular area of commerce. Scoping out the competition on Amazon, Ebay, and any other Ecommerce marketplace can give you some extra ammunition when deciding on what you are going to sell. Read the reviews of your competitors, look at their social media pages, and try to find out as much as you can about how their business runs. This way, you can see what your prospective customers like, and what they don’t. In this respect, you actually have an advantage over your rivals, which hopefully should allow you to enter the market place in a competitive fashion.

Take advice

Get online research. The difference facets of Ecommerce are explained in detail on various blog posts, Youtube videos, and forums all across the web. It pays to listen to the people ‘in the know’, as they have generally been in your position before, and can share the stumbling blocks and pitfalls that they have either dodged or fallen down themselves. Learn from their failings, ask them questions, and get involved in the online community. If they don’t have an answer for your question, perhaps someone else in the forum will. Having access to this sort of ‘hive mind’ is a huge bonus for anyone starting a business in the last ten years. Use it wisely.