4 Things To Figure Out When Starting an Ecommerce Website Business

Running an ecommerce website business seems like a cute idea for a lot of startups. But if you’re serious about starting an online business – or even if you already have one running – you have to figure out these 4 major things when planning to open an ecommerce website business.
Let's pretend for a moment that you have the best idea there is, an excellent product to sell, more than enough energy needed to go through the grind of running an ecommerce business. Yes, you read it right! Running an ecommerce website is a day to day grind. It is not different from a regular offline store. So, you need that energy to go through it day after day.
Alright, so, you did all your homework on that end, and now you were able to come up with your initial business road map(I will write a separate post about making a business plan for your ecommerce business). You poured out your best mind into writing it till your cupboard has no coffee left, and came out impressed! You start looking at the road map you have developed and came out asking,

Where do you go from here?

After coming up with your initial plan it is now time to do some research about your business plan. Get deeper knowledge into running the business. You need also, maybe, check out on some people's testimonials on how they did it. That is to save you heartaches later on. But the purpose of this is to give you an idea how to figure out 4 major things about running an online store. Let's take a look at these 4 one by one.

#1. Figure out the right software for your online store business.

What is the right ecommerce software for my kind of business? There are a ton of ecommerce softwares out there. Some are really good, but there are others that are really bad. Two things you should try to be certain of about your choice is, does it work?  You don't want to become frustrated later with issues that the developers themselves cannot resolve. The other to be certain about the ecommerce software is,  is it FREE?

This is crucial in your choice because, in the first place, when you just started a business, you want to scale down on your cost. So, being free is HUGE! And it has to work, that is no question. The next question for you is which one?

Which FREE ecommerce software?

I usually give out two questions when choosing between two GNU softwares, after making sure that they work. That is, what is the server requirements? Does the software comes heavy on the server? Knowing this will determine where you will want your ecommerce website be hosted! Because you do have to consider the hosting side for your ecommerce business. Do you want to host it yourself, or have your store as a sub-store of a big store system. The other question is, is the system fast and efficient?
There are other things you would want to know about choosing which ecommerce software to use is support and cost of development. Big systems or systems with a lot of users does not necessarily mean, the best choice. Marketing has a lot to do with it. My suggestion is to find out the reasons not to use the software. By doing that, it kind of clears away all the marketing aside.
As ecommerce developers with a cumulative years experience of almost two decades, we have seen a lot of  ecommerce softwares come and go. While meaningful customers become frustrated and broken. We don't want that for you. My suggestion is to go for a light and fast system, and it must be maintainable and scalable yet efficient system like thirtybees ecommerce. Know more about what is thirtybees ecommerce software in this post.

#2. Figure out where your customers are.

I am going to say this straight, figuring out where you customers is different from actually getting them to come and visit your store. But by doing so, you have already given them the first step in their buying decision. But to have them actually come and buy is another topic worth writing. Which I could say, would be your biggest challenge once your online store is up! We call that SEO!
Figuring out where your customers are hanging out, and what are they looking for entails a lot of research and testing, and marketing. It will require your time and people skills. But believe me, once you are able to do this, you are giving your ecommerce business a future. SEO work is giving your business  a future in the digital world market! Without it, you can basically kiss your ecommerce business dream goodbye!

Read full post where should I start with my ecommerce business website?
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