The easiest part to starting an e-commerce site is by developing the online portal and by signing with manufacturers for supply of products. Many e-commerce start-ups see online sales as only the website or web portal. They fail to address the other important aspects for a successful e-commerce site. In this article I will go through some of the areas that a start-up must consider before starting the online venture.
Managing the Inventory
Managing the inventory is critical for the success of any online shop, especially if you are dealing with physical products. Long shipping schedules or delayed order will turn customers to other online shops that provide faster and more prompt delivery. A few points related to the inventory of physical products that the owner of the online store must consider are
- Will the manufacturer deliver the order.
- How much should you stock if you are taking the responsibility of delivering the order.
- If you are planning to have a store to stock the products you must consider the storage requirements for each of the products.
Delivery of confirmed orders
As the owner of an online store the last thing you would want is a delay in the delivery of an order. An order delayed in most cases means a customer lost. In the food delivery segment, the expected delivery time is a matter of an hour or in some cases a few hours.
There are many ways to plan timely deliver of orders to the customer. Mentioned below are few of the common methods
- Tie up with the local delivery companies like dunzo. These companies will be useful only if the order value is high as the charges levied by these companies need to be added to the total order value.
- Local small parcel / courier companies charge a lesser amount. While the delivery companies provide a more immediate service, the parcel / courier companies will take a minimum of 1 day to deliver the order.
- For high value orders or bulk orders you can integrate your online shop with their application for a seamless delivery. Many of the top parcel companies allow you to integrate you shop with their back-end software to process the delivery. This is very useful because as soon as an order is placed the courier company is automatically intimated and all you will have to do is to have the order ready. You could have them pick it up from the respective manufacturer or supplier.
Cancellation of the order
It is very important to have a cancellation policy and a process to handle order cancellation. If not handled well you will find yourself handling a lot of legal cases from disgruntled customers.
Creating awareness of the e-commerce site
The internet is a vast network. Getting found in this massive ever expanding network is worse than ‘finding the needle in the haystack’.
Something I ask all my prospective clients who intend to go online is what their marketing strategy is.
If you have a small shop on the roadside in your locality people around will notice your shop. Out of curiosity a few may even visit your shop. If your shop is located inside a complex then you will put a board to advertise your business. The bigger and more attractive the board is the more people will notice it.
Even if you don’t put a board, people visiting the other shops / offices will notice your shop / office.
However on the internet if you have opened an online store there is no way anyone will be aware of your online store. You will have to advertise and promote your store.
Promotion
A lot of effort and cost goes into promoting the business and it’s products. This requires a continuous effort in preparing the marketing strategy and and executing the promotion in the field. Promotion includes both online and off-line. The exact ratio on the amount spent on each of the promotion methods depends on the product and the strategy employed.
In most cases an aggressive digital marketing coupled with and effective branding helps companies reach their target market and increase sales.
I have just scratched the surface of this subject in this article. I will in a series of articles go in depth into what is involved in promoting online shops and brands.
Legal documents
Without proper terms and conditions and policies the owner of an e-commerce business will face a slew of legal cases.Today customers demand the best in the fastest possible time. Unclear policies or ‘terms and conditions’ in the website documents gives rise to different interpretation of the rules and it can land up in legal disputes.
Disputes or an unhappy customer, apart from taking the legal course can damage the organisation’s reputation by discussing this on various social media.
Having a legal consultant specialised in online digital legal goes a long way to avoid disputes and disrepute to the organisation and saves money.
Powerful server
According to surveys, a business has just between 1.5 seconds to 5 seconds to grab a visitors attention and view the remaining portion of the website.A slow server not only makes the website slow but if the number of people visiting the website increases it could also refuse the connection.
A high-end server with a large bandwidth will burn the pockets of business with small budgets. At the same time a server that does not match up to the increasing user request will turn potential customers away.
It would be prudent on the part of the owner of the e-commerce site to have a technical person proficient in server management monitor the server load and performance.