How to Start an E-Commerce Business: A Step-by-Step Guide

If you entertain the idea of providing your customers with an online shopping platform to purchase your products, then you should consider starting an eCommerce business.

This could come in handy because building an eCommerce store takes more than choosing a brand name, and starting to sell products online.

There are a few things to consider before you can fully set up your eCommerce shop, and that’s why we’ve decided to provide you with a step-by-step guide to kickstart your eCommerce business model.

Related: 5 SEO Tips to Boost your Business

What is an Ecommerce Business?

 An eCommerce business is a business model that allows the buying and selling of goods and services over the internet, requiring digital transfer of money and data to execute these online transactions.

Most times, eCommerce is used to refer to the sale of physical products online, but it can also describe any kind of commercial transaction that is facilitated through the internet.

E-commerce business models have also evolved to make products easier to discover and purchase through online retailers and marketplaces.

It enables the sale of goods and services at a scale that may not be possible with traditional offline retail. Hence, the reason why freelancers, small businesses, and large corporations, all benefit from it.

Types of Ecommerce Models

 There are four main types of eCommerce models that operate in our environment daily.

• Business to Business (B2B)

This type of e-commerce model involves the selling of goods or services from one business to another business. (e.g. A business sells software-as-a-service for other businesses to use)

• Business to Consumer (B2C)

This involves a business selling a good or service to an individual consumer (e.g. A local consumer buying an item from an online retailer).

• Consumer to Consumer (C2C)

This involves a consumer selling a good or service to another consumer (e.g. An individual consumer selling used items on eBay to another consumer).

• Consumer to Business (C2B)

This involves a consumer selling their products or services to a business or organization (e.g. A photographer licenses their photo for a business to use).

How to Start an E-commerce Business?

 Before starting an eCommerce business, there are several eCommerce business plans and steps you’ll need to take.

We’ve broken down these processes into 5 steps as stated below:

Step 1: Identify your Niche

After deciding to start an eCommerce company, choosing your niche is the next important step to take.

To make identifying your niche easier, you should come up with e-commerce ideas on the type of business model you want to employ, and also consider what exactly your e-commerce business is going to offer.

It is also essential that you research successful eCommerce companies already working in your field to find out if it is a competitive area.

An absence of competition might just be an indication that there’s no market in that space, and this could aid your decision to find a better niche.

Step 2: Choose your  Business Name and Legal Structure

Once you’ve found your niche and carried out a competitor analysis, the next step is to choose a name for your brand.

It is okay to give your brand a unique name, but make sure whatever name you pick indicates what your business is all about.

You might as well want to research to be sure that the chosen name for your brand is not currently being used by another company or brand. If it’s chosen already, you would need to pick a different name or use a different structure.

After sorting your business name, the next thing to do is choose your business’s legal structure, which could either be a sole proprietorship, general partnership, LLC, or corporation.

Whatever business entity type you choose will have important legal and financial implications for your e-commerce operation, so you might want to consult an attorney or any legal practitioner for professional advice before diving into this.

Step 3: Build your E-Commerce Website

After you must’ve sorted your business name and chosen your legal structure, you can go ahead to create your eCommerce website on any online store builder.

Depending on your budget, there are lots of eCommerce platforms available on the market for you to create and launch your website yourself.

But it is advisable that you have your eCommerce website development done by a professional designer or by any IT company, and one highly recommended IT company you can bank on for your eCommerce website design is Spread Solutions.

Spread Solutions help businesses design the best eCommerce websites on the best eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, etc.

Most of these e-commerce platforms not only allow you to create and launch your online store, but also to customize your design, add your domain, manage inventory, take and ship orders, receive payment, and more.

So whether you decide to choose an all-in-one platform like Shopify, or an open-source platform like Magento, your e-commerce platform will always be the base for the development of your online store.

Read Also: 10 Mistakes to Avoid When you Create Your Website

Step 4: Source or Develop Products

After you’ve started building your eCommerce website, you’ll need to source the products you’re going to sell, utilizing the e-commerce business ideas you drafted when finding your niche.

You may also need to make your products and source them from distributors, or you simply describe and list services on your business website if you’re selling your services.

However, selling products may be more complex, as you’ll need to put into consideration the inventory you want to start with and costs, as well as listing your inventory on your online store with the customer experience and SEO in mind.

Step 5: Market your E-commerce Business

Now that you’ve learned how to start an e-commerce business, with your products or services prepared and listed on your online store, you’re now set to start serving customers.

However, all these processes towards building your e-commerce business would be a waste of time if you can’t properly market your business, so you might need to take advantage of e-commerce marketing.

There are a variety of marketing strategies you can utilize, which includes Google ads, social media ads, word of mouth, and more.

Additionally, you can make use of any online marketing tools that are included within your e-commerce platform, or even try other marketing tactics like SEO and email marketing to attract people to your store.

As time progresses when your e-commerce business is up and running, you can adjust and change your marketing strategy to find what works best for your business.

Bottom Line

From lower starting investments to operating for 24 hours daily for customers worldwide, there are certainly lots of benefits that come with starting an e-commerce business rather than a brick-and-mortar one.

So if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur with a dream of starting your eCommerce store and building a business that gives you a sense of achievement and freedom, you are not so far away from achieving your dreams.

All you need do is follow these step-by-step guides on how to start an e-commerce business, and if you need to find the best eCommerce website builder, always remember that Spread Solutions has got you covered.