The new normal has paved the way for e-commerce. In 2019, over 1.92 billion people worldwide purchased goods online, which translates to $3.5 trillion in revenue – and it’s only expected to boom, with more people opting to stay at home and have their goods delivered to their doorstep.
Although there’s no guarantee that all online stores will be successful, starting an online business is a good opportunity for those looking to earn added income even from the comfort of their own home. If you’re thinking about starting your own online business, here are three tips that can help your online business thrive.
Decide What Products to Sell (and Which Platform to Sell Them on)
Your home doesn’t have the capacity of a Walmart or a Costco, so you can only have a number of products stocked at home. So, before you start your business, think carefully about what you want to sell. You won’t want to fill your home with too many things that you don’t know how to sell.
Do you want to buy directly from a manufacturer and become an authorized reseller? Do you want to sell high-end goods? Or do you want to create a made-to-order product customized to your customers’ needs?
These are some questions you have to consider before you start your business.
Choose Your Courier
Aside from running the operations from your home, you have to find a reliable courier that can take your product from your home to your customers.
It can be hard to find a balance: how do you find a logistics company with courier services that can reduce the costs of e-commerce shipping, so it eats less of my profit or customers won’t be put off by the high shipping fees? And how do you find shipping that offers fast shipping that doesn’t inconvenience or upset my customers with the slow deliveries? This means doing your research and seeing what other small businesses in your area are doing to fulfill their deliveries.
Don’t Scale Too Early
Until you see your business booming and you see there’s a big enough demand to warrant it, don’t scale your business too early. You can tell there’s a need to scale your business when you can’t keep up with customer demands or you find your growth plateauing.
At that point, you know that you need to expand your operations.
Until then, don’t increase your inventory or invest in your operations even more than you do until you know your business cannot thrive without you scaling. Many small online businesses scale too early, only to realize that they have done so too early and are left with excessive inventory that can be difficult to sell.
Starting an online business is a great income-earning strategy for those who want to stay at home and take advantage of the e-commerce boom. But there’s more to online businesses than setting up a store and marketing your products – it’s always a good idea to focus on your operations and see if you’re making smart decisions about how your business operates.
