For modern-day entrepreneurs, e-commerce offers a world of opportunity. With the wide range of platforms available, culture-wide participation in social media, and the internet’s ability to connect businesses with their target audiences seamlessly, entrepreneurs can very quickly get their small businesses up and running. The ease of access to e-commerce marketplaces provided by, at this point, almost every platform makes getting started simple.
However, establishing a presence and becoming successful are two different things. While getting on these platforms is easy-going, entrepreneurs will find that getting traction, building a loyal customer base, and becoming profitable to the point where scaling is an option are… well, another matter.
If entrepreneurs want to leverage the accessibility of e-commerce spaces for success, they’ll need to make sure they set a foundation for success. In this article, we’ll break down how that foundation is laid, considering the infrastructure e-commerce entrepreneurs will need, how to successfully launch a product, and how to leverage time-tested growth strategies.
Consider Your Infrastructure
If you’re using e-commerce as a side hustle, you can work with the infrastructure you have; but if you’re planning on building a long-standing business, you might want to audit every element of your home office.
Take a look at:
Your network connection: A slow network impacts every aspect of an e-commerce business, from making you slow to respond to customer inquiries to interrupting video calls with stakeholders. Revenue leakage, reputational damage, and frustrating operational hiccups are a given if your network speed isn’t quick enough. If your ISP is consistently slow to provide service, consider switching to another provider, paying for a higher-quality network plan, or unlocking faster service with dark fiber network tactics.
Your conferencing equipment: Right now, you may be a one-person organization – but as your business scales, the need for you to hold meetings with vendors and stakeholders will also grow. Invest in a high-quality webcam and a microphone with radial input – the latter is especially helpful for screening out background noise, a must for those who live in large cities.
Your inventory management systems: A shocking amount of small businesses use Excel spreadsheets to manage inventory, instead of solutions created to minimize product loss. Inventory management software unlocks real-time inventory visibility, allowing you to pinpoint exactly how much you should order, and also automates sales, orders, and deliveries.
As with big-box stores and brick-and-mortar businesses, back-office optimization is everything. Unlike traditional organizations, however, yours functions primarily through remote channels. Making sure you have the proper setup and leveling up your systems to accommodate scaling is absolutely critical to achieving long-term success.
This can be tough if you don’t have the funds available to set up a good infrastructure. You may need to look into alternative financing options, whether it be crowdfunding, peer-to-peer, or revenue-based financing. Having enough funds available will also help with your product launch.
Launching Your First Product
Once your back office is appropriately equipped, your next step should be to create a strategy for launching your first product. It isn’t enough to simply create a listing and make it available, not if you want your product to be a big seller – you need to create a plan that connects the functions of marketing, customer support, sales, and finance into one cohesive, streamlined journey.
Here’s how you can create a perfect product launch strategy:
Create a checklist: This checklist will outline every step of your strategy, holding you accountable for meeting each goal before your product hits the market.
Segment your audience: Data visibility is key here, as it isn’t enough to know your primary market; to prepare yourself to scale, you also need to identify niche audiences that might fall outside your primary target. Knowing who is likely to buy your product will help you tailor your listings and your marketing accordingly.
Build the product: Once you have a design in mind, you need to build a prototype. Prototypes will give you a rough idea of how much materials it costs to make a single item, give you insight into flaws before the product hits the market, and allow you to refine your design before shipping it off to vendors.
Set KPIs: Defining benchmarks for success is essential, as it will allow you to pivot your strategy if those benchmarks are not met. Marketing data, sales numbers, and inventory costs are all typical KPIs that business owners like you leverage.
Connect with vendors/external stakeholders: Now you need to set the infrastructure for the creation and distribution of your product. If you’re making your product by hand yourself, your infrastructure may look a little different, consisting of invoiced work and a single external collaborator. But as you decide to expand, you may want to enlist external investors, manufacturers, and distributors to meet production goals.
Launch the product: How you shape a listing, especially on platforms like Etsy, will be extremely important for attracting your target audience. Leverage keywords that are likely to attract your target audience, as these will help your product show up when a consumer searches for relevant interests.
Your first product is your introduction to the consumer; from conception to execution, it needs to go as smoothly as possible. Setting up a product launch plan streamlines the journey from prototype to high-quality product, and often helps with fulfillment as well.
We hope this brief primer gave you the tools you needed to set a foundation for success. As you do the work to foreground your business in e-commerce best practices, you’ll be able to scale effectively and turn yourself into a household name.