How to start an e-commerce business from scratch in 2020

Just remember how many online purchases you did for the last two weeks. Most people make two or more purchases on the internet over 19 days. This is how e-commerce on the web works right now. How does one start an e-commerce business from scratch in 2020?

When you want to start a business, the most convenient way to validate your idea is to have an online version of your business. In this way, you can have a place where your target audience and new users can also make purchases.

The e-commerce industry is exploding. Stores from brick and mortar that temporarily closed down may never open again.

If you would like to start your business, and already have an idea, your first step should be to do the research. Don’t operate off of a hunch.

When you have already explored your niche and have all the necessary information, this is a great time to start meticulously searching for a contractor. The first step is to invest in the finding of competent contractors and creating content.

Usually, the research stage, as well as creating content, designs and advertising materials, should be done at one place –  ecommerce development company. This helps to speed up the process because all team members will work in one place and provide the highest quality at the same time, cause, for example, the content will work for web design, Instagram and Facebook advertising campaigns. 

The professional web development services should be the first line at your checklist when you start to look for a contractor.

As an idea, there are a couple of other moments to look through during the search step.

How to find the contractor:

1. If the client already runs a business but isn’t happy with its implementation – the right contractor will be able to seamlessly transfer the site and content to any platform without losing traffic and customers.

2. If a ready-made solution can cover your business’s requests and business goals, the right contractor will advise you to use it. Such a contractor will provide you with a solution based on their experience, research and tips from previous projects and will save you time.

3. Before starting new cooperation, you or someone from your team should always check the feedback and review the contractors on the open platforms, social networks (Instagram works well for it). From such reviews, you should try to understand deliverables, project management, customer-orientation strategy and transparency in relationships with the clients.

How to deal with content:

For the e-commerce business, quality content is 56% of your sales pipeline.

1. The business should have and identity. A right decision before the main steps of content creation is to have a brand bible (or style guide), you might want to hire a design team to create it, and use during an extended period (between three to five years) for your brand.

2. The content for your business photo and advertising materials should be high resolution and good quality. One picture could be used in a few platforms and a couple of times. For example, if you order five good photos of your item, you could use it on your website, in the responsive version on mobile devices, on Instagram, on Facebook and for advertising on local platforms. For a good example, you could have beautiful brands like for Hims and Boldking.

3. The description for all goods should be done “from the client side” – text should be focused on product benefits, their story, key characteristics and style of the brand (if any). The description should be easy to scan.

If ready-made solutions could cover your business requirements, the best practice is to choose from the top.

1. Shopify – is probably the best e-commerce solution that is available today (427,676 websites)/

2. WordPress – is the most popular CMS in the World (75 million websites), which could be updated following product needs.

3. Magento – you could browse through tens of thousands of responsive templates and themes (250,000 websites).

4. Opencart – a free software (342,000 websites).

If you could build your online shop without any help, it does not mean that it will help you expand your business and will meet all business requirements and needs. If you want good results – choose solutions for your needs and capabilities, contractors that already have the expertise. In the future, it will save you resources and time.

Switch to custom solutions when ready-made solutions no longer cover your needs, for example, workloads, integration, etc. It would help if you are looking for a team that will build your business in that way so you can scale it in the future, and you can continue to improve your shop or store following progress.

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