In today’s commercial space, the importance of a business going online is immense. This brings more visibility and awareness to the business, allowing it to scale up manifold. In the present competitive market, a business cannot scale up while simply operating from a physical store. Having an ecommerce store is a simple yet effective means of reaching out to potential customers beyond a geographical limit. Although many businesses wish to have an ecommerce store, the investment involved in creating one often deters businesses from taking the step. However, there are several ways by which businesses can create basic online store with minimum investment.

Recognize the various e-commerce business models

Before you make any investment in setting up an online store, you must have a thorough understanding of several business models. Although ecommerce may seem similar to running a brick-and-mortar store, it is in reality quite different.  Business models in ecommerce include:

• • Business to business (B2B)
  • Business to customer (B2C)
  • Direct to customer (D2C)
  • White Label and Private Label
  • Wholesaling
  • Dropshipping
  • Manufacturing
  • Subscription-based

Understanding the different models will allow you to choose the one that your business aligns with. It will further help you determine a vision for your business and present you with a roadmap.

The appropriate e-commerce platform

To take your business online, you require to create a store on an ecommerce platform. An ecommerce platform is basically an online store builder equipped with an array of facilities. Any online business offering goods or services, whether small, medium-sized, or large, may manage a website, advertising, sales, and operations with the help of an ecommerce platform. Having an online store is not merely listing your products. An ecommerce website aids businesses beyond that.

An ecommerce platform allows you to list your products, add details about the items, delivery methods as well as payment methods. Such platforms automate the entire process, so that your business is open during all hours of the day. Additionally, you can track your business’ performance with the help of analytics tools on such platforms.

As a result, choosing the right platform for your business is a key factor in determining its success. SalesKlik is an easy to use ecommerce platform where you can set up your online ecommerce store in just a few clicks and minimal investment. Simple and easy to use, the platform is a boon for small to large scale businesses planning to move online.

Determine your Products

A business may have hundreds of products, however, only a few products are popular. Hence, choosing the right products becomes the most important piece of running your business. Showcasing products on a physical store and online are similar yet different.

Just like how the more popular items of your store get the front row, the products that you feel are likely to perform well should get placed in the ‘featured’ section of your store. Whether you are a jewellery business, or an apparel store, you must highlight your best selling products. To understand how to list your products when you create an online store, you can:

• List down your products
• Identify their demands on other marketplaces and compare
• Observe and list their price points from your competitors
• Select the products that you find are in demand in the market. However, make sure to list filler products and expand your inventory too.

Price your Products

The way you price your products depends on the way you source it. If your business follows the manufacturing model, your costs differ from the dropshipping model. With the research you do on the market, you can easily notice how products similar to yours are getting priced. You can use in-built tools from ecommerce platforms to analyse, compare and price your products. Product price listing determines how much profit you earn and get in return with your investment.

Select Payment Methods and Delivery Partners Wisely

When you set up your online store, you also need to research the various modes of payment. When your customers are shopping online, they will be redirected to several payment method options. Hence, you will need to identify the appropriate gateways to provide options to your customers. Compare the fees and the services that you need to pay to use their services.

Further, since your business will be open to a wide geographic location, you will need to partner with delivery providers to ship the orders to customers. List and compare the deals from delivery service providers. For an initial start, you can pick the lower budget ones and then slowly scale up as your business grows.

Customise your Store

Many businesses refrain from investing on a website when creating an online store. Although such businesses understand the stability and impact an optimised website can make, it can however be expensive to build a website from scratch. Ecommerce platforms have integrated low-code online store builder features, by which you can create several pages for your store with proper functionality and interaction features. The platforms also offer free theme templates and layouts by which you can choose the appearance of your store. Time to make an impact on your target customers!

While you definitely need to invest in getting started with an online retail store website builder it is not always expensive. Additionally, taking advantage of social media, building a community will reduce the marketing costs that as a business you may feel the need of.