The content of this blog post stems from an interview with the CEO and founder of Cybertegic, James Hsieh, wherein he shares his insights in creating a successful ecommerce business by correcting the most common misconception about ecommerce:
Creating a website alone will NOT generate sales.
Now the true question remains: How can an ecommerce website generate sales?
The best advice given by James Hsieh himself is to treat your ecommerce business like any other business.
You are a coffee aficionado and have decided to open a coffee shop to share with the whole world your love for coffee. Naturally, you would not open the store if you didn’t have the proper personnel to run the coffee shop. In addition to having the right personnel, you would also need to constantly update your product offerings. The coffee supply should never run short, and you should have a list of the lowest-priced yet best suppliers on hand so you can offer the coffee without sacrificing your profit margin.
The same attitude applies to ecommerce businesses.
To put it clearly, there are three main elements that one should consider before opening an online business.
First is the TEAM. You have to hire the right people for a business to run properly. In the case of an ecommerce business, there should be an ebusiness manager and a web designer. An ebusiness manager is tasked to run the ecommerce store, create and determine timely promotions, and conduct competition analyses on a regular basis. A web designer, on the other hand, should make sure that the ecommerce website always has a fresh look and that new products are featured instantly.
Second is EXPERIENCE. Never go into a business you are not familiar with. Say for example, the lady shoes business is the latest craze online now. A male doctor deciding to join in the bandwagon by opening his own shoe business does not seem too credible. When it comes to ecommerce businesses, always start with something you are already familiar with.
Last is RESOURCES. Take the coffee shop scenario again. Before you plunge into that business, you should have enough money to buy the initial inventory of coffee supplies, cups, lids, etc. The same goes for any ecommerce store. Money is a resource that should never be neglected. You should have enough cash flow to run the operations and buy your supplies. A proper ecommerce platform is an absolute necessity in order to conduct your sales. This ecommerce platform should have a solid inventory and accounting system for transactions to run smoothly.
One thing that should be remembered is that an online ecommerce store is not like a real store wherein automatic foot traffic can be expected once the store opens. A website needs marketing and advertising for it to generate its much needed web traffic. Think about it. There are millions of websites out there and the only way to stand out amidst the competition is for your website to be known and seen.
How? Through Internet marketing. Hence, a sufficient marketing and advertising budget is needed to generate enough potential customers to come to your ecommerce website. You must also develop a proper internet marketing strategy that could do wonders for your ecommerce business. You can choose from different marketing channels such as: pay per click advertising (PPC), search engine optimization marketing (SEO), email marketing, shopping comparison site marketing on Amazon, Ebay, Yahoo Shopping, and much more.
Team. Experience. Resources.
Without these three basic elements, an online business is guaranteed to fail.