×

Posted on

Launch Your First eCommerce Website : Choosing an Industry, Product and process (Part 1)

Tag: ecommerce

Launch Your First eCommerce Website : Choosing an Industry, Product and process (Part 1)
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Launch Your First eCommerce Website : Choosing an Industry, Product and process (Part 1)

With higher Internet penetration levels, jumping into the online e-commerce bandwagon is fast becoming crucial for business survival. A recent estimate by eMarketer puts the online sales opportunity at over $27 trillion in 2020. Thus, any prudent sellers cannot afford to miss out on digital selling and opt only for the brick and mortar store given the huge market size, cost savings, access to a wide customer base and low barriers to entry in the online route. The e-commerce business is clearly here to stay. In this series, we shall explore the simple four- pronged approach to successfully launch one’s first e-commerce website right from start to finish. After you are through this series of articles, you’d realize that setting up and running one’s e-commerce site is no rocket science at all!

Choosing an Industry, Product and process

The products listed on an e-commerce site are its mainstay. Thus, it is important to zero in on the right industry group, list of product categories to be hosted on the website and the process of delivery to the final customer. The following are useful points to determine what inventory to sell and how to source the merchandise:

  • Research your niche: A good starting point would be to pick a competitive industry and identifying the successful players. This would ensure there is already a sizable customer base with latent demand to tap into. Alternatively, one could pick what’s on popular listing or a category with multiple keywords and trending on social media. Another approach would be to select what’s one’s liking and has experience in. After all the success of a business depends largely on the degree of commitment of the entrepreneur. Its highly likely that one would be more involved in a business vertical that one is interested in.
  • Source products: In case you are not keen on in-house manufacturing, you could also obtain inventory from other manufacturers. There are two options in this- either stock inventory or dropship the products i.e. ensuring direct product delivery from the manufacturer to the customer.
  • Contacting the suppliers: Having decided the products to be sold online, its imperative to find the suppliers of the products. In case one decides to host readymade merchandise or manufacture products, suppliers of the final goods or raw material sourcing is vital. Some popular routes include looking up online directories or searching for suppliers on the websites of trade organizations. For a more personalized approach, it might be a good idea to visit seminars, trade shows and similar events in one’s city to touchbase with potential suppliers. In case one already has contacts in a particular industry segment, it might make sense to go by referrals. Lastly, using social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook one can post an update or requirement or enter discussions in related groups, which might help win vendors.
  • Shortlisting suppliers: Having created a list of potential suppliers, its important to communicate and negotiate the terms and conditions. This would ensure no future misunderstanding as regards payments or wrong product delivery or description. It is also advisable to read supplier reviews on other websites to gauge their service quality. The following are some of the important parameters to be evaluated:
    • Terms of payment: Whether the vendor accepts cash on delivery, net 30 days, net 90 days or advance system
    • Minimum order requirements: Some suppliers mandate bulk purchases
    • Cost estimate: In addition to the cost of the products, vendors would charge for shipping, packaging and handling fees.
    • Insurance cover: Most suppliers insure the products against liability arising from product recall, damage during travel, malfunctioning etc.
    • Non delivery or late delivery: One must be aware of the vendor policy in respect of undelivered orders or late deliveries, so as to avoid souring business relationship with one’s customers.
  • Prepare a viable business plan: Having discovered your niche, zeroed in on the products, studied the profitability and demand potential and sourced the suppliers, its important to study competition and develop a feasible business plan. This would help differentiate oneself from the peers and win sales conversion. The business plan should cover diverse scenarios of base, best and worst case, with strategies to win new customer leads and grow traffic and to have a backup plan to keep the e-commerce business up and running throughout.

Now that you have the broad guidelines of starting an e-commerce in place, its crucial to move to the ‘tech’ aspect of setting up the online portal. We shall discuss the finer nuances of setting up a website and e-commerce platform in the next article in this continuing series.

5 years ago
How to provide a local flavor to your global ecommerce business
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

How to provide a local flavor to your global ecommerce business

Think global, act local is the new success mantra for e-commerce players operating internationally.

Localization of one’s global e-commerce business is the best strategy to transcend cultural boundaries and win customers’ trust (and wallet share!). Although e-commerce has wiped away the boundaries of time and place, cultural differences play an important role in customer perception. Often, small changes like localization of language and content can help connect better with the customer. We shall study the ways in which the localization strategy can be effectively implemented:

  1. Speak the same language: One must be aware of the cultural sensitivities of each region before going gung-ho and translating the entire website into the native language. For example, in some regions, an informal address might be acceptable to the customer. In others, a polite and formal tone sends across the message of being business-like and professional. Customers are likely to be impressed with product descriptions in their regional language or websites hosted on country-level domains. Often, there are websites that support multiple languages. One needs to select the country name from a drop down menu and the entire website is customized as per local tastes. However, it is important to note that the meaning should not be lost in translation!
  2. Win at social media: Unless one has been living under a rock, an active social media presence is a must. Effective communication and posts as per regional interests would help easily win potential customers. One should not stick to global platforms like Twitter and Facebook merely. There would be other mediums that would be able to catch the pulse of the local public better.
  3. Reviews by natives: It would be a good idea to include reviews by the natives in the regional website. The readily available peer reviews would convince other customers about the quality of the product. This would result in higher sales conversion.
  4. Utilize local festivals to one’s maximum advantage: This strategy works well in a country like India, where festivals are celebrated on many days in a year. Major e-commerce players like Amazon, Flipkart have successfully adopted this strategy. They offer special discounts for Diwali, Republic Day, Holi etc, which results in phenomenal volume growth in sales. Further, offering customized products with marketing material suited to the occasion can help boost revenues. Thus, one could capitalize on special shopping days by working with local marketing agents to achieve higher sales.
  5. Payment processing in local currency: Customers would prefer to pay in the local currency. Merchants should ensure that the payment gateway supports payment in home currency. Another idea would be to have a flexible shopping cart with a currency converter. The online payment platforms could also offer multilingual support. It would be prudent to have multiple payment options as the preferred and acceptable payment modes vary from region to region.
  6. Familiarity as a branding strategy: Localized content and hosting products that are popular in the target market would help the customer easily navigate the website. Thus, the purchase decision and transaction completion would be faster. A smooth checkout process would ensure repeat customers for further buys.
  7. All-in-one adaptation: One must remember not to restrict localization merely to linguistics or language translation. Localization strategy encompasses the entire gamut of content – text, pictures, currency, delivery channels, brand building, design and cultural alignment. The last would include aspects like avoiding selling products on the e-commerce website that hurt local sentiments. Researching the local market to create a native shopping experience is key to achieving success.
  8. Know the rules: Local regulations on consumer laws and data privacy should be considered before localization of the e-commerce platform. For example, some countries mandate the use of a privacy policy and a disclosure of cookies that store customer information. One must keep in mind the local taxes and other jurisdictional requirements that are to be complied with in the payment gateway process.

Localization of the e-commerce business, operating globally, would allow the message to go across clear to the customer, enabling higher sales conversion, beating competition and reaching out to a wider target audience.

5 years ago
Online marketplace vs e-commerce webpage – which one you should turn to?
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Online marketplace vs e-commerce webpage – which one you should turn to?

With an increasing pressure to maintain a good digital presence, sellers are often faced with a dilemma. Whether to invest in one’s own e-commerce website or list products and services on an online marketplace for a fee? Though both are entirely based online, one must be well aware of the differences, pros and cons of both the options. This way, one can make a well-informed decision, best suited to one’s business model. The following are the features, advantages and disadvantages of each of the two options:

  1. Operating model: An online selling model wins hands down over the traditional brick and mortar shop by way of customer reach and access.
    • E-commerce webpage: An e-commerce website is an independent extension of one’s business i.e. an online store. The portal would host the entire product catalogue with brand details and pricing.
    • Online marketplace: On the other hand, an online marketplace is where one lists one’s products, along with many sellers, for potential customers to browse and buy. The website owner allows third party sellers to sell to customers in return for a fee.
  2. Cost dynamics: An e-commerce site needs to be running 24×7 and requires considerable monetary investment and set up time by way of development, design, selection of domain name, hosting services, integrating a shopping cart, content and can then take payments online. It requires hiring of skilled talent to maintain the site and resolve technical issues. There is minimal cost involved in a marketplace, as one can register, upload and sell the products via the digital platform.
  3. Winning customers: E-commerce requires marketing efforts to build a loyal customer base and ensure sales conversion. However, since it exclusively hosts in-house products, there is potential to earn better margins in case of higher traffic. Further, one can establish direct rapport with customers and send emails on product promotions, discounts or offers. This might result in higher repeat sales. Marketplaces are on the other hand, purely transaction based, and seek to match seller’s products with potential customers. However, since one is competing with several other sellers in the marketplace, one needs to have a good product differentiation or offer discounts to attract customers. In this case, the profit margins might take a hit.
  4. Brand building: E-commerce offers ample opportunities to develop one’s brand and offer customized products to customers. Marketplaces would uniformly promote all listed products and try to enhance website visitors. One might lose sales to competitor sellers. Thus, there are limited opportunities to engage with customers and develop leads. This is because the payment processing and transaction is handled by the online marketplace.
  5. Ease of navigation: An e-commerce website offers products based on separate categories. Hence a customer can easily filter the products or search based on a refined criterion to access the listings. Plus, the product universe would be relatively lesser compared to a marketplace, owing to being restricted to a single seller. In case of a marketplace, the products are organized as sets with multiple sellers. Owing to larger data set, the product selection might be a time-consuming process.
  6. Control aspect: In an e-commerce site, one can control all the aspects of design, content, templates, security aspects, payment mode and integration of payment gateways. There are no limitations on the character limits or guidelines to follow. One can create a unique customer experience and engage better with the customer. There is no flexibility of customization in a marketplace that functions as a one stop shop. Thus, the design, content and templates are as per the choice of the online platform owner. Further, to attract more customers, there may be multiple online payment platforms.

In conclusion, you need to remember that a one size fits all concept never works in business. An online marketplace might help increase sales conversion in case of a relatively new business. On the other hand, in case of a business with an established client base, it would make sense to operate an in-house e-commerce portal. One must take a suitable decision based on the vendors’ business model, nature of products, specific needs, client base and pricing model.

5 years ago
#Payshout – Join the PayTabs Merchant Shoutout Program this Ramadan
Mohab Special Offers 0

#Payshout – Join the PayTabs Merchant Shoutout Program this Ramadan

The popularity of Payshout, a promotion campaign launched by PayTabs to help businesses find more ground online and explore more business avenues, continuous to grow. With the season of Ramadan in full swing, most e-commerce businesses feel it’s a great time to reach out to the right audience through our merchant shoutout program, which proposes an excellent way to showcase a website, a business, a brand, a product, or a service to the audience.

75 and counting

The only way shoutouts work is when the host or influencer is sincere, specific and public. At PayTabs, we make it a point to be honest about our dealings and offer relevant information to our clients and customers. This dedication has resulted in over 75 merchants joining with our network, this season to have Payshout promote their business online through our social media accounts.

Compared to industry specifics, this is a huge achievement, and one we are very proud of. The fact that PayTabs provides one-stop revolutionary solutions for all spheres of businesses, gives us the opportunity and exposure to reach a varied spectrum of customers. Most websites, products, brands and services online (in touch with us) realize this and could not wait to sign up as soon as possible to the successful #Payshout program.

Don’t Miss the Golden Opportunity

The flavour of Ramadan is in most shoppers’ hearts and you don’t want to miss this opportunity to get your business known by hundreds and thousands of people. Our social media outreach involves interaction with customers and clients from all corners of the world.

So, if you have an e-store or an online business or product, then sign up to our merchant shoutout program and get noticed. This could be the thing that makes all the difference in your sales and profit this season.

This is how we can benefit your business and brand:

  1. Popularity and Exposure

We make your brand popular and noticed by thousands of potential customers. Our social media efforts reach out to people from all regions of the world. You don’t have to worry about local exposure anymore. With the help of our global payment platform that accepts over 168 different currencies, you can make your mark on the world.

  1. Generate Leads and Engage New Audience

If you are thinking of taking your brand to the next level, then collaborate with us on our #Payshout campaign because we don’t just stop at flaunting your content, but take it to a whole new level on various social media platforms. You can enjoy brand awareness and reach new audience groups simply and easily.

  1. Use Your Signature Content

Payshout is unlike any other regular merchant shoutout opportunity. We focus the limelight on your business, e-store, brand, products, and services by publishing your content. You get to put your logo and use any content that you think will work with your targeted audience. PayTabs provides the medium for you to enhance your business exposure, like we provide the ultimate payment gateway to enable quick deposits.

You Can Still Sign Up

Don’t worry if you missed out the first wave. You can still sign up with PayTabs merchant shoutout program #Payshout. Simply get in touch with us and submit your content, creative image, logo, and the name of your website, brand or e-store. We will do the rest to make sure you get the best from this opportunity.

The Final Word

Our shoutouts happen periodically and we make sure that we reserve a special spot for every partner business. You don’t need to worry about being overshadowed from your competitors or other businesses in different niches.

In return for our outreach, we request our partners for a one-year commitment to engage PayTabs as your exclusive payment processing provider. We open the world of payments at your fingertips with our innovative and technology-robust payments solutions. With plenty of payment features, ease of integration, seamless compatibility, and compliance with security protocols, we ensure that our partners get the maximum benefits from their online business.

The bottom line is that Payshout is a wonderful opportunity for your business to grow its online presence and a unique way to boost your brand awareness. So what are you waiting for? Explore Payshout today.

5 years ago
Startups living in uncertain times?
Mohab Ecommerce, Guest Posts 0

Startups living in uncertain times?It goes without saying that startups have transformed how we interact with the world around us in the past few years. If you’ve traveled to any of the world’s major cities in, say, 2010, you would have likely checked into a hotel and hailed a taxi cab to take you there. Today, you can expect greater convenience, value for money and, possibly, a chance to meet locals at a click of a button through Airbnb and Uber.

The trend carries on as I type this blog entry. Uber, an established company by now, is being made to tweak its operations to keep newcomers like Bird, which now rent scooters as an affordable, convenient and reliable means of transportation, from eating into their market share. Also consider how corporate giants such as HBO, Amazon and Disney are being compelled to launch their own streaming services to reclaim their market shares from the likes of Netflix and Hulu.

But the truth is that startups can only flourish in healthy economies. Successful startup enterprises, after all, reflect harmonious matchmaking between entrepreneurial creativity and innovation and an optimistic outlook by investors. Perhaps it’s within our nature as humans to be creative and problem-solve, so the entrepreneurial spirit will probably never flag. But access to capital can be a problem. Even the most revolutionary business ideas of our time couldn’t have seen the light of day without funding.

There are many scenarios that can affect access to capital. How business-friendly is the economy? Are investors and lenders bogged down with red tape? Are they optimistic about the prospects of yielding a profit? Might they be concerned about consumer purchasing power if it’s not rising? Or maybe regard the market as saturated in a given sector? Endless possibilities can influence the outlook of investors and lenders.

One scenario that can surely affect startups’ access to capital is a financial crisis. Despite the inspiring success stories I’ve mentioned above, there is evidence that shows that potential for startups to succeed in the US has not yet fully recovered to its former pre-crisis levels in terms of births and deaths of startups, job creation and, perhaps most importantly, commercial lending. Fast-forward to 2018, and you’ll find the business press making noise about an upcoming and potentially deeper recession. Gloomy headlines such as “another economic downturn is just a matter of time” and “monetary policy for the next recession” can be found in the Economist and the Financial Times. JPMorgan Chase has even put a date on when it expects the bad news: 2020.

If the recession of 2008 is any guide, we know that we can’t underestimate how connected the GCC markets are to the fortunes of Wall Street: the US market, as the world’s biggest and most important, had a direct impact on commodity markets globally, which in turn affected GCC financial markets and government revenues. So the question for us becomes: how will we cope if a new crisis befalls us? Can we prepare any contingencies to keep new startups connected to their lifeline? Crisis or not, a lot can be said about the ability of startups to address all sorts of challenges, including the problem of access to capital. Just ask the people behind Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Beyond that, the role of pro-business institutions like Bahrain’s Tamkeen will be key in helping startups to rise and, if the doomsayers are correct, survive the winter of another recession on Wall Street.

About the author

Mahmood Almahmood is a translator and editor at a national news service. Trained in the social sciences and the arts, he enjoys staying abreast of the business press and analyzing its trends.

5 years ago