This Is How Anyone Can Launch a Profitable eCommerce Site

You may think you need plenty of capital and technical knowledge to launch an eCommerce site, but actually, this is not the case. With the right tools and a little help from those in the know, you can get your online store up and running quickly and inexpensively.

If you are thinking of starting an eCommerce platform, you may already have gone through this step, but it is essential to do a little work on your product idea to ensure that it is viable. See how well this type of product is already selling. Is there a large market? What kind of competition are you up against, and how are other sellers marketing the product? The best way to gather information on this is to check the major eCommerce platforms, such as Amazon, eBay or Alibaba.

Once you are convinced that you can do well with your product, your next step is to determine what to charge for it. This can be tricky, especially when you are first coming to the market. You don’t want to price yourself out of the market before you have even started, but you also don’t want to undercharge and reduce the viability of your business. First, calculate all your costs to see what it will take to break even. Then, add in a profit mark-up that is ideal, yet also realistic. Remember to factor in all your costs: what you pay to buy or make the product, web hosting, shipping, the fees charged by payment processing services, and marketing costs. Once you have worked out an ideal price, research what your competitors are charging. Your prices will have to be in a similar range, but you can work out ways to be more competitive, such as bulk discounts or special launch prices.

Safe, reliable shipping is almost as important to your business as your products themselves. What shipping methods will you choose, and how will you cover those costs? You can pass the cost on to your customers, but excessive shipping prices can easily result in lost sales. One way to compensate for this is to use one or more shipping solutions that could offset your costs, while still offering an attractive proposition to your customers. You could offer free shipping across all products – building the cost into your prices. Alternatively, you could offer free shipping on orders over a certain dollar value, or you could offer a flat shipping fee across all orders.

There are plenty of eCommerce solutions available, and you will need to do a bit of homework to see which one suits you. Consider your budget and your needs, and choose the platform that works best for you.

A strong contender for your online shopping platform is zeckoShop, an affordable eCommerce solution that goes beyond building a simple storefront. It also provides a suite of integrated tools that increase automation and help you manage sales and inventory. zeckoShop offers:

– Secure communications

– Modular platform design

– Increased visibility

– Professional support

The scalable, customizable platform enables you to:

– Sell globally

– Master your content

– Develop branding and design

– Grow your business

Once you have chosen your platform, you can begin building your site. The platform will provide the operational framework, so you need to spend time thinking about your content – the pages that will sell your product to your customers – blogs, home pages, effective item descriptions, About page and contact pages.

Select your eCommerce template, then add in the content, including your colours and branding. Then start adding your content – everything from your information pages to your product descriptions. Finally, you can set up your payment options, before testing and, finally, publishing your website.

Let Terracor Business Solutions help you create the perfect eCommerce site. Using our zeckoShop eCommerce solution, we can create customized, scalable eCommerce platforms for sellers in any market. Watch one of our informative product videos or contact us for more information.