How to start an ecommerce from scratch

You would like to start a new career online and, after evaluating the countless opportunities offered by the Web, you have decided that opening an eCommerce is probably the best idea.

Surely, we who work in this environment, can tell you that online sales can be a really profitable business, however, it also requires some effort and innovative ideas, especially in the initial stages.

With this article on our blog, we want to help you get a clearer idea of ​​how to start an e-commerce from scratch and we sincerely hope that the information presented here can help you realize your dream.

Index

• Definition of ecommerce
• Choose the product and business model
• Finding a reliable supplier
• Create an ecommerce site
• Continue to advertise the site

Definition of ecommerce

Let's start by saying that ecommerce is short for "electronic commerce" (electronic commerce), so there are already conflicting opinions about its correct spelling. Some prefer to write e-commerce, others Ecommerce, and still others, like us, prefer ecommerce. In fact, however, it really doesn't change anything.

If we want to give a definition of e-commerce, we can say that this is the activity of buying and selling goods or services via the Internet and this can happen via websites, apps or even on social networks.

Choose the product and business model

A first step that is nothing short of fundamental when you decide to start an e-commerce is to choose the right product to sell . How do you decide what to sell? Well, if you want some advice, try to think about what people might need right now. Let's take a practical example.

Imagine that summer is approaching. Having done this, you might well think that perhaps people in this period might need a cooler bag or perhaps water bottles that keep water cool. Here then you could orient yourself towards the sale of these products as regards the summer period.

Furthermore, to understand even better if people are actually interested in these products, you could for example use the Google Trends platform and enter "Cooler bag" as a search term and see how that search term has been searched by people over time. If you want to do this test too, you will notice in no time that every year, in the period of July-August, this search term reaches its maximum peak on Google.

Of course, this is just an example and you can do the same reasoning with an infinite number of other products. However, another factor to always keep in mind is also the competition . For example, you could decide to focus on the sale of smartphone covers which is a product that can be sold all year round and on Google Trends it constantly presents a large number of searches, however, the competition is also really ruthless in this field.

Keep in mind that using Google Trends is just an idea. A product could be incredibly successful without much research on Google Trends.

Once you have found the right product to sell, you will then have to choose the most suitable business model . In particular, you will have to decide whether to sell to customers (B2C) or to companies (B2B) (if you choose to sell coolers, you will probably have to address end customers). After that, you will also have to choose whether to sell in dropshipping or sell products in stock that you will have delivered to your warehouse. We have explained the difference between the two methods in detail in our dedicated article [link].

Finding a reliable supplier

Once you have decided what is the best product to sell, you will definitely need to find a reliable supplier to provide you with that specific product (unless you are a manufacturer). We have explained very well how to find reliable suppliers in our article all about this topic [link].

However, if you have chosen to operate in dropshipping, the supplier will acquire even more importance, since in that case the supplier will take care of both the packaging and the shipping, so practically everything. In the case of stock sales, however, a supplier will still have to be reliable, in the sense that they will have to ship the products to your warehouse on time and regularly.

In the article we pointed out to you earlier, we explained that you can find reliable suppliers for example on Alibaba, Aliexpress, DHGate and also through us at SPS Fulfillment. The choice is really wide, in short.

Create an ecommerce site

Have you found the right product and the right supplier? Great, then it's time to create an ecommerce site .

If you think that to create a website you need to know complex computer languages, you are very wrong, because nowadays there are several online platforms that allow you to create e-commerce websites using convenient and simple online graphic tools.

Many of our clients, for example, create their own website using Shopify . It is a paid CMS that is very easy to use. Shopify provides many tutorials on the site that allow you to understand how to create the site step by step and this makes creating an ecommerce site accessible to everyone.

Another platform is Wix and it is also a CMS, but more oriented towards the creation of small shops. It is also very easy to use and does not require knowledge of any type of programming language. We invite you to take a look at the official website of the platform to find out what rates are available.

There are many other similar platforms such as Magento, PrestaShop, WooCommerce and others. In short, in recent years, as more and more people are throwing themselves into this business, many online platforms have been created that allow you to create an e-commerce site in just a few clicks.

We also want to remind you that during the creation phase of the website, you will have to insert all the accepted payment methods. Generally speaking, the more you put, the better. Do your best to accept credit/debit cards, bank transfers (if you deem it necessary), PayPal and possibly also cash on delivery. On Shopify there are many apps that can be easily integrated that are used to manage all the payment methods.

Continue to advertise the site

You've found the right product, you've found the reliable supplier, you've created the site and now all you have to do is continue advertising the site .

We tell you right away that if you just create an e-commerce site and that's it, it's very unlikely that customers will magically arrive. You will in fact have to advertise your site. In the initial stages, this can be done through paid advertising campaigns via Facebook Ads . This is a paid service from Facebook that allows you to create real advertising campaigns. This could give you some visibility right away.

Another route you could take is to pay to insert your ecommerce ads in Google Ads . By doing so, other users could see the ads for the products you sell through Google advertising.

Then there are free methods that are not so simple and immediate. One could be to exploit SEO and therefore try to position your site as high as possible on search engines. However, even in this case you could always decide to turn to a specialized paid SEO agency or an SEO consultant, but clearly it would no longer be a free solution.

Another way to advertise for free is to make newsletters . Of course, these newsletters will have to be sent to someone, so you could devise a strategy to get the emails of people who visit your site, perhaps asking them to enter their email in exchange for a PDF manual written by you in which you explain something you are expert in and that is related to the product you are selling.