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People across the internet recently have been showing off how much money they’ve made by selling products online. This might seem pretty appealing to you, making money without having to stand in a retail store all day waiting for sales, sounds good right? However, have you taken the time to consider some key points before jumping online and  setting up your store? Let’s have a look at them. 

What Products Are You Going To Sell?

The most important thing to consider when setting up your e-commerce store is which products you will sell. Your best bet is to start small, select a few products that are based around a specific niche, you can always add more further down the line. 

When selecting which niche to sell in, pick something that personally interests you, if not – you’ll quickly lose your passion for it. 

Evaluate your idea

Once you’ve got a few products in mind, take some time to check if it’s viable. Ask people if they’d buy the sorts of products you are selling, check in on your competition to see if they are selling anything similar and research the existing demand. 

Why not try talking to a retail & product marketing expert like Alex Ryan – a consultant is probably much more affordable than you first imagined and can ensure you’ve got the full picture when thinking about setting up a retail venture.

Find a supplier

After deciding on a strong product idea, your next step is figuring out where you’re going to obtain your product. There are plenty of different options, you could make the product yourself, find a manufacturer either locally or overseas, buy large quantities of your product from a reputable wholesaler or finally you could dropship and negate the need for sourcing your own inventory. 

Check out one of the UK’s leading online B2B marketplaces, Retaissance, and consider joining a trade body like The Giftware Association to help guide you to the right suppliers.

Setting Up Your Online Store

Now comes the fun part! Coming up with your business name, creating a logo, setting up your website and making sure that everything is working correctly so you can start taking orders! Think about which e-commerce platform you are going to use, there are plenty of options out there such as Shopify & WooCommerce, do some research and then decide which platform will work well for your particular business. 

Remember if you need a hand with any of these things, you can give us a message and we can help you. 

Marketing Your Online Store

Once you’ve launched your website there are plenty of things you can do to effectively market your store. From Google and Facebook advertising targeting your potential customers to more basic strategies such as word of mouth. At the most basic level, you want to make sure that your website has proper SEO and some basic analytics built in so you can track what your customers are looking at.  From here, you can expand your online store however you wish, maybe offer discounts to loyal customers or set up an email newsletter that alerts people to new products? The possibilities are endless.

If you’re thinking about starting up an e-commerce business in 2020 but you don’t know where to start, why not get in touch with us and see how we can help.