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The corona virus pandemic has much of the world in fear of their financial security. There is a great concern for one’s employment. Businesses are failing all around us.
Now is the best time to start an online business!
Work must go on and if you can run a business online, you are sure to continue generating a lucrative income. Do you have a retail business that requires a physical presence? Or do you want to get into the retail business?
There is no better time for starting an online retail business than now. In this guide, we will show you how to get started.
The Guide to Starting an Online Retail Business
Use this time in quarantine to build your skills and kickstart your business.
Take these steps to build your online retail business and build a lucrative income:
1. Find a Market
Often a retailer will want to sell a product (usually one they personally like) and then find a consumer market.
While this may work on occasion, it is hardly the best strategy. It is always better to find your target market or to fill in a need before choosing your product.
Do your research as to what people are buying and what they need. During our current pandemic, it may be best to sell food products or health products such as sanitizers and masks.
Of course, it is likely that the product you have chosen is already being sold by countless other online retailers. Learn about what your competition is doing so you can do a better job than them in selling your product.
2. Build Your Website
Once you have chosen your products, it is time to build your website.
Your website needs to be aesthetic but also simple. You need to immediately grab your audience’s attention which can only happen with an easy-to-navigate website.
There should only be a few clicks from the product description page to the cart for checkout. In less than 5 minutes, your customer should be able to pick a product and purchase it.
While you can design a website from scratch, the best is to use a service that is intended for building online retail websites.
3. Basic Marketing Skills
We suggest that you learn marketing skills on your own.
You need to aggressively and frequently market the products you sell. The Internet is full of online retail stores. You need to find a way to differentiate your store from the rest.
Here are the basics for marketing your online store which we will cover in the next points:
- Have SEO-friendly copy on your website
- Market your products across social media
- Reach out to influencers to promote your products
- Always keep an eye on marketing analytics to determine marketing strategy
It won’t hurt to understand how product marketing works so you can boost your sales.
We strongly suggest using a website to learn the skills needed for working online. We would also suggest taking a course on becoming an expert marketer.
4. Copywriting
Once you have developed a basic understanding of how marketing works, the first step is to write effective copy for your store.
This is particularly important in your product descriptions. Having an attractive description will draw your consumer in. It is also crucial to have SEO-friendly copy so that your website ranks highly in search engines.
Your product description should highlight the unique features of the product. If you are selling a camera, for example, highlight the aperture rate. Is the camera Wi-Fi enabled? What is the pixel rate that the camera allows?
Your copy is supposed to bring out the product and convince the customer to purchase it.
5. Content
It is no secret that one of the best ways to market a company is through content.
Your content will establish your store’s reputation for the industry. Your store should present itself as being an expert on the products that you sell.
Continuing with the camera example, you can write a blog post on how to get the perfect shot. You could also make a video tutorial on how to do a photoshoot with this camera. Perhaps a podcast interview with a professional photographer sharing a testimonial on the camera?
This content can be shared on your store’s blog, on social media platforms, and through forums. If this content is shared with an audience that is interested in the industry, you will see increased traffic to your store – and hopefully increased sales!
6. Email Marketing
This is an underrated form of marketing, often overshadowed by content marketing and social media marketing.
But email is not dead. Often the first thing we do in the morning is to check our email. And we often check our email accounts several times a day.
Your store’s website should have an area on the homepage for your customers to enter their email address to subscribe to your email newsletter.
Use your email newsletter to share your content as well as to promote products. Especially when you are having a sale or have introduced a new product, an email newsletter is the best avenue to get the word out there!
7. Sales Techniques
Finally, how exactly do you make sure that you get sales and build a lucrative income?
One is to competitively price your products. Remember how we discussed checking out your competitors in Tip #1? See how much they are charging for similar products and see if you can offer a better price.
Offer deals, such as offering free shipping if your customers reach a particular price minimum in their shopping cart. Have sales around special occasions such as the winter holidays.
You will always have to find a way to save your customers money. Perhaps send them a coupon in the shipping package? Maybe you can give exclusive discounts to loyal customers?
Keep studying sales techniques to make sure that your online store stands out amongst the competition.
It’s Selling Time
Now that you know the rules of starting an online retail business, you are ready to start selling! Follow these rules and you are sure to build a successful business.
Be sure to follow us and read more about online business tips!
- Like
- Digg
- Del
- Tumblr
- VKontakte
- Buffer
- Love This
- Odnoklassniki
- Meneame
- Blogger
- Amazon
- Yahoo Mail
- Gmail
- AOL
- Newsvine
- HackerNews
- Evernote
- MySpace
- Mail.ru
- Viadeo
- Line
- Comments
- Yummly
- SMS
- Viber
- Telegram
- Subscribe
- Skype
- Facebook Messenger
- Kakao
- LiveJournal
- Yammer
- Edgar
- Fintel
- Mix
- Instapaper
- Copy Link