Is your product or service vendible on internet?
Not very product is marketable on internet or say not very product gives you the same result if you try to sell it on internet. You can take the B2B products here as example. They aren’t easily vendible of internet and that marketers often find it difficult selling B2B product on internet. However, things have changed in last few years and consumers are becoming more and more freak about online shopping. They are even buying things of almost daily use such as mobile phones, watches & accessories, electronic appliances, daily deal coupons apart from buying apparels, shoes and et-cetra, paving the way for businesses to grab more & more customers online.Deciding about the right sourcing partner!
Not everyone who owns an ecommerce website has a manufacturing unit as well. In fact, if you look at the actual scenario, a large part of the online sellers get their SKU’s through sourcing. Identifying a reliable sourcing or supply partner from the crowd could really be a daunting task. While deciding about the sourcing partner for a given product make sure you don’t settle on just one, which is a big mistake a lot of marketers make. Think about the consequences if your sourcing partner shuts down their business? This can even add to the troubles if your sourcing partner on top of it is outside the country you are running your online business. So, never commit a mistake of making partner with less than at least 2 sourcing companies for any given product.Figure out the level of competition in your niche!
Securing the 1st position in a race is still possible than securing it in a marathon! I hope you are getting my point! I mean the number is really big when it comes to your competitors. So, stop being emotional about it rather open your eyes and realize the fact that competition is really very high. Analyze the level of competition in your niche before anything you do in order to have an edge over your competitors.Plan you marketing mix wisely!
Recently in one of our articles we talked about settling on the right marketing mix for your business. This is what! It’s very important to have the right marketing mix at place when you are launching any business forget about the ecommerce, which is all about the right marketing. You must implement a well thought out internet marketing strategy that involves a proper mix of offline marketing as well. However, make sure you are allocating 90% of the marketing budget to online based on the nature of product you are selling online. It’s not just the story of the beginners but even a number of big ecommerce companies have made a mistake of wasting a big part of budget on the conventional marketing and spoiling their business for making the wrong choice by not keeping online marketing as the priority. Doesn’t mean if you have adopted the online marketing for your business it’s all done! Even for an online marketing you need to make sure you have the right mix of marketing components for your business. Search engine marketing tactics take almost 6 months to show results while PPC gives instant results. You need to understand this and your requirement and basis everything you need to create the right marketing mix. Always remember! Your concepts of online marketing must be clear before you are putting your money at it!Are you using the right shopping cart?
There is a variety of shopping carts in the online world with prices ranging from $0-$2000 and even more. All you need to do is to look at your budget while settling on the shopping cart you think will go well with your business. You even have a few shopping carts at your disposal for no charge such as oscommerce. At the same time, you have these shopping carts called interspire that offers you almost with every possible feature one must be looking for. However, if you are looking for shopping carts that come with a hosting facility & monthly payment then also there isn’t a shortage with shopping carts like big commerce and martjack to name a few.The type of goals that you have – Long term or short term!
This is again something that needs a very meticulous approach. You first need to look at the type of goals as to whether they are long term like increasing the turnover or the short term like increasing the instant sales & profit margins. Making predictions about the sales figure to be achieved isn’t easy. Not very marketer has the same objective behind running an ecommerce store. While some are only concerned about the turnovers like an ecommerce store selling mobile phones, some only care about profit margins and not turnovers, for instance an online store vending in-house products. In fact, such stores anyway have a high profit margin.Do you have an alternative plan if the original plan fails? In worst case! 🙂
Not every ecommerce business creates a history and that forget about driving profits some just struggle to survive on the platform. Obviously if you have launched a business, you must have a plan but what if it fails? Do you have an alternative plan just ready to overcome the consequences? There could be a chance that your original plan succeeds with any kind of tweakings or change however at the same time there could be chance it doesn’t succeed. Although it all depends on the product that you are selling and the marketing strategy you are working on still its recommended to always have at least one alternative plan at hand in worst case if the original fails.What delivery model do you have?
Don’t forget! Transaction made is not the sales achieved! IN ecommerce you cannot claim the sales to be achieved until as per your parameter it is achieved and that the transaction done is barely a step in the conversion. Each and every step till the time you can claim your sale to be a sale is crucial and so you must make meticulous approach at everything including your delivery model. A few marketers through don’t give much priority to their delivery model while creating the strategy but it’s as dangerous as flying a fighter plane without a parachute with a belief that it will be saved. Your belief will not save you but the resources! With a bad delivery model, forget about getting repeat customers you can’t even completely close a single sale and that chances are high that the consumers ask for return & refund. However, you must be aware of the fact that success of an ecommerce business depends on the number of repeat customers as it reduces the Cost per Customer Acquisition lifting the profit margin. Therefore, don’t take the shipment for granted if you really want to create an awesome shopping experience for your customers and settle on the shipping partner a little meticulously.Always keep in mind! Customer is God!
The basics of business never change and that the future of your business is completely dependent upon how happy your customers are with you. One happy customer that you have brings 10 others to your company adding more to your business apart from making repeat purchases himself. This not only increases the revenue for your company but decreases the new customer acquisition cost apart from improving your goodwill in the market. So, make sure your each customer is happy and satisfied with your product & services and witnesses a triumphant business.Last but not the least! Think yourself as your customer!
Think yourself as the customer who has to buy a product from your website? Had you made the purchase if you had been the customer? Look at all the factors that matter from a customer’s perspective! It’s awesome if you have made a purchase but if not look at what needs to be improved. For they are investing their lovely moolahs in it, the consumers thinks at least 5 times before making a purchase online. A few things that they are concerned about is security, customers reviews, shipping charges, discounts& offers, the product and of course the price.Afterword!
Happy Marketing! 🙂