Setting up an e-commerce business requires preset steps to be done, from choosing a suitable business model to making sure operations run smoothly. We will outline the most important steps of your e-commerce business that can make you succeed or fail in this article.
Objectives of the E-Commerce Problem Solving Course
This course intends to assist new entrepreneurs with step requirements that need to be met for a successful e-commerce business website. The topics included such as drop shipping or managing e-commerce inventory prepare you to start and grow your online store.
Important Details:
It is important to know how to operate the business model such as drop shipping, what costs you will incur, and what tools you need to operate such as costing calculators.
Important Implements:
Multi-vantage point photoshoots and stock management are necessary things that every emerging entrepreneur e-commerce must have.
Costing Calculator:
This assesses the feasibility of orders cost ensure making the cost cover or even having a profit.
The Drop Shipping Model
This is the best option for those who are short on cash needed to buy physical goods or pay for a storage unit. With this model you sell directly to customers without dealing with the merchandise. This is great for new starters who have little to no resources.
Sales Models
You may pick the wrong sales model for your business. Most entrepreneurs, especially rookie ones, tend to make the mistake of elucidating models without making an attempt to modify them to fit their business.
For example:
Established businesses may be able to use Amazon or Flipkart’s models, but novices should not presume these models will work for them without enough capital.
Do focus on what sales model will fit best for your case study before executing any action.
Costing Calculator
Every e-commerce business needs a costing calculator. The lack of which could jeopardize the existence of your business. It is like assuming that you can obtain profits when selling a product at such a high price, like selling a 5 rupee item for 50 rupees. Without deciding on what profits to make, you could do more harm than good. Even within Microsoft Excel, the costing calculator serves all purposes because it helps you manage costs and decide on profits.
Photoshoots
When selling online, product photographs must always be of high quality. Take professional grade photographs of your item perhaps in media studios or with the help of expert designers. Capture the item from five different angles as this will help customers form an idea of how the final product may look. Customers will consider trusting the services provided and they will order more.
Operations
Every business has a focal point, and in this case, it is the operations. Even little operational errors can result in hefty losses. For example:
If the capacity is 5 orders a day, what would happen at 500 orders? Manual processes are restrictive in nature.
To address large volumes of orders, the core processes must be automated.
Warehousing
In order to provide quicker delivery, warehousing services offered by large e-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart should be used. This allows you to adopt the FBA model since you can remember various places where products can be stored and shipped for faster delivery.
Inventory Management
Avoiding unnecessary returns relies heavily on the ability to manage your inventory. As an example: A customer orders white shoes, but you send a pair of black shoes instead. As a result, you have to account for:
Cost of acquiring the customer
Courier charges (both in terms of delivering and picking up the order) As the ones who have to deal with such problems, improves a great deal by focusing on effective inventory management to ensure product availability and reduce errors.
In this segment, I will summarize important aspects that should be considered when establishing an e-commerce business:
Funding:
How does one obtain capital? Is there a need for loans or investors?
Payment Process:
Implement services like Paytm and Google Pay for efficient payment processing.
Business Models:
Learn the core components of B2B and B2C and incorporate them into your strategy.
Pricing Strategy:
Set a price that allows for market penetration without neglecting the competitors.
Customer Understanding:
Understand what your customer desire and offer them that.
Marketing:
Develop a technique that allows for the selling of your products without spending money, and leverage customer service as the main selling point.
Legal Compliance:
E-commerce entrepreneurs need to be aware of the laws affecting their businesses.
Consultants and Vendors:
Be very careful when it comes to choosing partners, as they may be very costly.
Key Outcomes
- Use warehousing of some e marketing companies for fast delivery services.
- Proper inventory control measures will reduce the number of returns as well as increase profits.
- For efficiency in scaling an e-commerce business, funding automation is essential.
