Start an Online Store in 7 Steps
Introduction to E-Commerce in 2024
The 2020’s are proving to be a landmark moment for e-commerce.
As we continue to grapple with a global pandemic, we’ve witnessed the emergence of an increasingly digital world in a remarkably brief period of time.
Now more than ever, markets and business models around the world are being created and transformed by the internet.
Despite growing consistently for over three decades, e-commerce has never seen such a drastic increase in popularity. It would appear as though we’re adapting:
In spite of its well established status, the mechanics fueling e-commerce remain a complicated landscape.
Fortunately for us, this complicated and competitive landscape has paved the way for an era of e-commerce that is more accessible than ever.
As such, in an effort to demystify the world of online business, I’m going to briefly explore what I believe to be seven fundamental requirements for entering the industry in 2022.
This is how to launch an online store in 7 steps:
- Product
- Branding
- Business Registration
- Web Presence
- Social Media
- Handling Orders
- Marketing
1. Product
Without a product or service, there is no business. E-Commerce or not, what we offer to the world in exchange for payment is our purpose, it’s the reason we exist.
Everything else in this post is only here to improve that offering. Either way, a good product will sell itself so it’s worth investing the resources to produce one.
Research Target Market
A logical place to start would be to research our target market, analysing our target demographic and our competitors.
Our customers come first in virtually every step of the product development process, so knowing who they are, what they like and what’s already on offer will make the process a lot easier.
Supply Chain
To take our product from idea to reality, we’ll need a supply chain. Of course, the supply chain for jigsaw puzzles will look totally different to swimwear, but there are similarities regardless of industry.
We’ll iterate through designs and prototypes, sourcing suppliers and samples as we move through production and begin building an inventory.
The scale of this operation could be anything from printing t-shirts at a local printing business to working with an international team of designers and manufacturers.
Pricing
Our product is more than just the sum of its parts, it’s a combined effort of many teams, directed by you and the people you hire.
Each step in this process, including everyone involved, will be factored into the pricing of our product. This forms the foundation of our business model.
To reiterate — nothing else in this post matters without a good product, so we need to focus on that first. Our ‘million dollar idea’ is worthless without million dollar infrastructure.
2. Branding
No matter how incredible our product is, it’s not a golden ticket to success on its own.
In the age of endlessly available content, running a business is throwing yourself into a global arena housing a brutal, never ending battle for attention and clicks.
Click-bait headlines and catchy visuals reign supreme in this arena with big brands collectively investing hundreds of billions of dollars to rise to the top.
With that in mind, I would argue it’s worth doing everything we can to help our business prepare for the fight — we need a brand that sells itself.
Visible Branding
Branding extends beyond just a name and logo. Branding is everything our brand represents wrapped up in a single, complete package, including the things you can see and the things you can’t.
It should be concise, impactful and consistent.
Visible branding is likley what comes to mind when we think of branding, things such as name, logo, type and colour. We’ve invested a lot of time and effort into producing a great product, it would be a shame to lose interest because of a tacky name and logo.
Invisible Branding
Invisible branding is less obvious but equally as important. It’s our vibe. It’s our mission statement, values and ethics, a reflection of the interests of our stakeholders.
It’s the emotion our brand invokes, the experience we’re selling. Everything from the customer experience to the wages paid to our suppliers. Are we ethically sourced? Sustainable?
Our branding is synonymous with our products and should be targeted as such, mindful of our target demographic.
Everything we do from this point onward is at the service and benefit of our brand. Are we going to hire a cheap designer on a freelancing website, or reach out to a local artist on social media? What’s in the best interest of the brand?
3. Business Registration
Without a doubt the most boring step in this entire process, sorry. Regardless, business registration remains an essential step.
It’s worth taking the time to understand our legal obligations, usually determined by government bodies at the state or federal level.
Business Type
When registering a business, you start with the type — usually Sole Trader (or Sole Proprietorship), Partnership or Company.
Your federal government should have a library of online resources explaining the tax implications of each.
Registration Process
In Australia, registering a business can be done online via the Australian Business Registry (ABR), which will provide you with an Australian Business Number (ABN).
Other Considerations
Beyond legal registration, we may consider business insurance and the registered location of the business.
An online store may not have a physical location in the usual sense, but we’ll need an address for customers to send returns. A P.O. Box may be preferable in the absence of an office or warehouse.
4. Web Presence
In what should be no surprise to anyone, a storefront is crucial for a business in retail.
In the era of E-Commerce, our web presence is indistinguishable from our business. This includes our domain, our website, and everything that entails.
Domain & Website
We’ll need a domain that’s attractive, relevant and easy to remember. Similarly, our website should be flawlessly designed and kept clean and up to date, just as we would a physical store.
Ultimately, our website has less than 10 seconds to convince potential customers it’s worth browsing, so it needs to be well designed.
Fortunately for us, building elegant, functional websites has never been more accessible.
Local digital agencies or consultancies (like Bite), or online platforms such as Squarespace, Shopify, Wix or WordPress are usually a good place to start. Most platforms offer free trials, so I would encourage using them to find a platform that works for you.
Online Tools & Plugins
In addition to our domain and website, it would be useful to investigate tools and software that might support the IT ecosystem of our business.
This may include apps and plugins, accounting software, or tools such as Google Analytics (for tracking user analytics) and Google Workspace (for custom email and workflow). This closely relates to SEO and SEM, but I’ll come back to those in Step 7.
Privacy Policy
Finally, we’ll need a Privacy Policy and Returns Policy, possibly coupled with other Terms and Conditions. For small businesses, reviewing the auto-generated templates on our website’s platform might be enough.
5. Social Media
Whether we love it or hate it, social media is a gateway to an almost never-ending stream of customers.
Without it, we have virtually no chance of keeping up with our competitors.
Coverage
Like any living ecosystem, the internet is always in motion — it’s our responsibility to stay on top of our online presence.
With an account on each major platform, ideally under the same name, we can begin to build an online community (or at a very minimum, prevent would-be impersonators).
This community is a direct channel of communication to our most valuable customers.
Social Media Strategy
This perspective begins to highlight the value of a social media strategy, especially one that reflects our brand accurately.
We need to publish content consistently across all platforms, conscious of the distinction between audiences. The average user on TikTok is not the same as on Facebook.
It also goes without saying, our branding from Step 2 should be consistent across all platforms. Those apps and plugins from Step 4 may also start to make sense here (for example, if we setup custom email, we might begin to explore the use of aliases for public contact details).
6. Handling Orders
At this point we’re no longer a collection of ideas but an established, legally recognised business. We have a brand, a product and a supply chain, a social media presence and a website.
What we haven’t considered however, is shipping.
It’s important we’re prepared for when orders start coming in. The customer experience fuels customer loyalty and word-of-mouth, both of which are vital for the long-term growth of our business.
Shipping & Inventory
We’ll need to consider product packaging, tracking inventory, handling customer enquiries and processing returns.
We’ll need the resources for shipping including labels, satchels and boxes — it may be worth opening a business account with our local postal service (such as Australia Post’s MyPost Business).
Processing Orders
The platform we host our website on will play a significant role in how we process orders, so we should familiarise ourselves with how it works. After running through a few trial orders I’m sure it’ll become second nature.
It’s worth noting, each of these steps work hand in hand with our IT systems and our accounting procedures, we’d be doing ourselves a favour by documenting as much as possible.
7. Marketing
And just like that, we’re a fully fledged E-Commerce business. Looking past our online format for a moment though — how are we any different to a traditional brick and mortar store?
E-Commerce has a long list of benefits, we should take advantage of them.
Unlike a physical store, our potential customers could very well number in the millions at any one time. Incredibly, if we’re willing to pay, less than half a dozen providers will give us access to most of those in just a few minutes.
Remember that brutal battle for attention we’re competing in? It’s time to get creative and think outside the box.
Social Media & Discoverability
When it comes to marketing, social media is usually the easiest place to start. Each of the major platforms have a fairly extensive list of resources covering how to get started, beginning with sponsored posts.
Beyond social media, we’ll want to consider Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to ensure we’re easy to find online.
Further Marketing
Depending on our audience, more traditional marketing methods may also prove useful (good luck advertising to the elderly on TikTok).
There’s also influencers, brand ambassadors and countless other concepts, tools and platforms. Local marketing agencies can be a great asset for navigating the surprisingly complex world of traditional and online marketing.
When it comes to marketing, a deep understanding of our target demographic will go a long way — it’s not hard to burn through a budget by targeting the wrong audience.
We should monitor our campaigns closely and spend wisely, recognising what works and what doesn’t.
Conclusion
Never before in human history has global business been so accessible and risk-free.
What’s more, not only do many of the tools and platforms I’ve discussed here have free trials, but there’s an unbelievably large library of free online resources that will teach you how to use them.
In this post, I’ve outlined what I believe to be the major milestones for launching an online store in 2022.
This is not an in-depth tutorial, but I hope to at least provide a summary of some of the key words you’ll encounter in the industry today. If you’d like to learn more, let’s start a discussion below.
