E-commerce: how to start a business and sell products online from scratch5 min read
Do you want to turn your business around? Expand your audience of potential customers by opening an e-commerce. Don’t know how to get started? Follow our guide.
E-commerce 2.0
Every year the growth of e-commerce becomes ever higher even in our country. 2020 was the year of grace of this sector, especially during the lockdown in March and April, where due to the severe restrictions on non-essential movements, 24% of Italians increased spending on non-food goods. The data published by the report “The World after Lockdown”, prepared by Nomisma and Crif, also show that 70% of Italians between 18 and 65 years old have purchased at least one product online in the last twelve months.
For this reason, it is no wonder that the number of people opening an e-commerce increases exponentially, with basic knowledge. Today we will see, in fact, how to start from scratch and sell their products to web users.
Often it happens that those who open an e-commerce business are a merchant who wants to add a web page to the traditional point of sale in order to promote and sell the same items online. In other cases, however, such ecommerce points start completely from scratch while starting their business at the same time. Now let’s get to the practical guide on how to start earning money by selling products on the web. Starting an ecommerce business:
How to start earning right away
When you decide to open an ecommerce business and lay the groundwork on how to start this job, the choice has to go on what you want to sell online. You may already have a precise idea, but this may also arise later. In case, we recommend the sale of items that are easy to ship that fall within the most popular items of the moment, but that can also become evergreens, that is, useful in the future and easy to manage.
The second action to be taken is to define the business model to be implemented. You have to define what the customer target will be: business (B2B) or consumer (B2C). This choice is very important, as it will greatly condition the business activities of the future.
Like every activity that is undertakeed in Italy, also to open an e-commerce and decide how to start structuring your online business you have to think about bureaucracy. To exercise this employment, it is necessary to open the VAT Number (even a flat-rate number, if you believe that you will not exceed 65 thousand euros per year in turnover) and then register with the Chamber of Commerce of the provincial capital of reference and at the Production Activities Desk of your municipality of residence. To carry out these practices, the best choice is to consult a professional (such as an accountant), who will allow the start-up of the business and its management in a simple and safe way for the benefit of the aspiring seller.
Dropshipping or warehouse? Another decision to be made concerns the presence of a warehouse or not where to put the products for sale. If you opt for dropshipping, simply send orders to a trusted wholesaler: in this way, the operating costs are zero. Create your own Brand. As a merchant, you must focus on a brand that is recognizable and appreciable, focusing on the logo, its strengths and the right approach to take.
How to start inserting products
Do after finishing the bureaucratic and offline part, it’s time to start designing your e-commerce’s online page. Now you have to aim for the platform by choosing the best option between an ad hoc built portal, an open source program like Magento or Prestashop, or a webpage for rent. For a more professional product, it is useful to contact the numerous web agencies specialized in the creation of websites.
Once the creation of the site has been obtained, the time has come to include in the same the products to be offered to the market with a rich catalog and by understandable navigation and facilitated even for less experienced users.
It is advisable to use the division of the goods into categories and sections, to allow future customers to find the sought-after product in no time. Enrich presentations with photos. Precisely because e-commerce no longer offers customers a physical experience, it is necessary to insert not only highly descriptive texts, but also high-quality photos that can the goods from all points of view to offer an almost real experience.
How SEO can help your e-commerce
Last but not most importantly, SEO indexing. In order to increase the chances of selling online properly, the e-commerce portal must contain various contents: persuasive texts aimed at convincing customers to buy the products sold and aimed at enhancing the SEO, or the positioning of the site within search engines.
For this reason, it is advisable to consult an excellent SEO consultant, who has the right skills to create the most effective strategy to better reach the preferred target through ad hoc campaigns, for example paid ads one of the most used services to increase online activities.
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