How to Start an Ecommerce Business from Scratch

This blog was partly written by writerly.ai with edits by Reggie Compton. This is part of a series of blogs called “AI Blogging.” See a problem? Let us know!

Starting an eCommerce business from the ground up can be a daunting prospect, but with careful preparation and planning it’s absolutely attainable. This blog will provide you with a roadmap of everything that needs to be done in order for you to take your first steps into becoming your own boss and launching your very own online store.

Step 1: Choose Your Niche

Choosing a niche is one of the most important steps when starting out as it sets the foundation for all future decisions related to marketing, pricing strategy, branding & positioning within the industry, etc. So make sure you do enough research on trends in consumer behavior before setting yourself down this path. Some key questions include:

• What type of product/service do you plan on offering?

• Who is your target market?

• What makes you unique (your competitive advantages) compared to existing players in this space?

• What are you good at or excited about?

Answering these types of questions should help guide your decision-making process. Remember having a niche will be easier to start marketing. It will also help with your budgeting since the amount you will need to invest will be naturally less up-front.

Step 2: Setting Up Shop

Once determine which products or services fit best into your desired niche comes time to set up shop! To start off things will probably require more manual effort than using tools like Shopify so consider utilizing pre-existing website builders like Squarespace – they offer great packages enabling entrepreneurs to get businesses off their feet without having any coding knowledge! Furthermore, implementing payment methods such as PayPal provides flexibility when dealing with customers located either domestically or internationally, and the more checkout methods with the smoothest product page to checkout the better. The worst thing to avoid when creating an e-commerce store is making it difficult or time intensive for the customer to pay! It’s also important to think about UxUi (User experience, User interface) when designing a website, so make sure to spend some extra time here to make sure the website doesn’t cause customer resistance. This is often described by Jakob Nielsen as “cognitive friction” which happens when something doesn’t work like you think it should. Also, look at Nielsen’s “10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design” for hints. Remember - good design leads to conversions.

Step 3: Formulate A Marketing PLAN

Once you have launched the shop, you will need to create buzz around the brand itself - without strategic plans and dedicated time, you will see minimal results no matter how much capital investment is put into it. I’ve seen countless owners who try to outsource creating & growing a budding business 100% on a marketing agency. This rarely works out because the owner doesn’t give enough time and energy to the brand. No one will love your baby more than you. Invest your time first in the growth of your baby business before asking for help. Remember - everything is your fault, even if it’s not.

The marketing plan can be as formal or informal as makes sense to you. You can always start with a formal, business-school-style marketing plan and go from there. Popular avenues for boosting the exposure of the website include low-budget campaigns, such as using social media channels and via Meta Ads (Facebook, Instagram), content creation + promotion via blogging sites (WordPress), joining affiliate programs, investing in SEO , etc. If you want to advertise at a more expert level, use Google Ads targeting relevant searches on search engines. Importantly, utilize your budget effectively enough to efficiently test new channels. Ensure the cost per click (CPC) remains within a tolerable range and cut your losses on one channel before spending too much to be able to test other marketing efforts.

Step 4: Utilizing Analytical Tools

Making effective data-driven decisions is a critical aspect of starting and running a successful eCommerce enterprise. Google Analytics will be your best (free) friend for monitoring your e-commerce store from every angle. (See the new GA4 and how it differs from traditional Universal Analytics.) Keeping an eye on metrics helps identify aspects of your marketing plan that works exceptionally well, and will alert you to underperformance. Make sure to examine the level of engagement of the traffic to your site as well as the shopping cart abandonment rate. Each new customer acquisition requires sufficient traffic, time, and optimization. Remember it is easier and cheaper to keep an existing customer than to persuade a new one to complete checkout. Leverage as much of the free, automatic tracking & reporting as you can get, but it may make sense to purchase reporting software as well. You can create custom dashboards for managing everyday tasks, identifying top KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and managing budgets. I utilize Agency Analytics for this. Additionally, you will want to track repurchase rates, loyalty, and transitioning customers to loyal, brand ambassadors. The formal metric for this is Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). The higher the CLV, the better. Typically, offering initial or time-based discounts will encourage loyal customers to initiate a first purchase and come back for repeat purchases. Be careful with discounts though. Too many will cheapen your brand and train your target market to wait for a deal rather than pay the full cost. Overall, your goals and marketing optimizations should focus on maximizing both your brand’s and your customer’s value. Technology makes e-commerce an accessible and exciting enterprise for people from all walks of life. Take these 4 steps and see if you can grow a successful e-commerce brand yourself!

Ready to grow your business? Reach out to the marketing experts at Penta West today!