10 Most Tips Before Starting from Scratch
Are you looking into starting an eCommerce business? Recently, more people are looking to be their own boss. But also everyone has the understanding that eCommerce business is easier. Hence we thought of listing a few things you should know before starting an eCommerce business. Starting an eCommerce business has never been easier with the available internet facilities as it is today. We want you to succeed, therefore we have aimed to make it easier for you to know what you will be getting into.
1. Chances of success are only 10%
Don’t be demotivated just yet! This is because people don’t generally follow the basic rules of the eCommerce industry. What people expect today is, if they don’t receive any profits in the first 2-3 months or if they receive a lot of returns they consider the business a failure. Furthermore, they get demotivated and consider quitting the business.
While getting into the eCommerce business, expect at least 2 years of losses. Only after that, you will be able to sustain yourself in the markets by gaining profits. To sustain your business in the market you need to be consistent, and highly motivated. And also you need to put in efforts to ensure your business is successful. Failure of this will lend you among the 90% of the failed businesses.
2. Getting fed-up from daily admin/ eCommerce activity
Another point to note while starting an eCommerce business is that: in the eCommerce industry, after some time the work begins to get monotonous, boring, and repetitive. Generally, eCommerce business normal routine would be: order is placed and received, the order is packed, then dispatched, possibly deal with a return/ replacement, and so on.
All these repetitive tasks can and possibly will make you (as an eCommerce seller) tired and bored. This would in turn reflect on your output which would lead to unhappy customers and you understand the end result from here. Also in other cases, once the eCommerce business turns monotonous people get annoyed and consider quitting.
Therefore take this as your only warning that your eCommerce business life will be boring at least for the first year when you’re not earning a lot of profits. During this period you will start to feel that you are putting in so much effort yet there is no growth in your business. This is mainly because there are various things that you are doing wrong.
Firstly, to have visible growth you don’t only need to put in hard work but also smart work. Secondly, you need to have a positive attitude towards your progress. Lastly, be confident in your business and yourself, ignore the backlash or demotivation that you will receive in the beginning.
3. You will get tired of returns
As and when (and you will) receive returns you are bound to be disheartened and tensed. But you have to understand that returns are a part of the business. Without having returns conducting eCommerce businesses is impossible.
If you are entering the eCommerce market with the intention that you are only going to sell products and not accept any returns; in this case rather don’t get into the eCommerce industry. If you do ignore returns then you are actually going to be bearing a lot more loss in comparison to the returns you would have received.
Therefore, while starting your business make sure that you have a plan in place to bear the losses and even try to earn higher than the losses must be your goal. Generally, this can be achieved via experience and training; which means this would take you time to understand. So, get into the eCommerce market with the mindset to learn as well.
4. You will forget to manage/ keep track of your accounts
If you are starting off solo or even if you are starting off with a lower budget you are surely bound to forget to update your books of accounts. But if you are starting off in a well-organized manner with a professional outlook the possibility of missing out on transactions is lower.
Even so, as you go on with your business you need to have a dedicated person for accounts. If you try to manage the business as well as the transactions of your business you won’t be able to focus on the business at all. This would simply affect your business as well leading you into the negatives. Moreover, dealing with a tonne of transactions is going to put you in a tight frustrated spot as well.
5. Might ignore/ forget to do marketing or promotions
While you are focusing on your business you are bound to miss one of the main factors which are marketing and promotions. There will come a phase where the business will be slow. During this phase, you have to put in some money and market your business.
Furthermore, initially, you will also notice that you are losing capital for these advertisement campaigns but not receiving much return for the same. This will be another factor that can dull your enthusiasm towards your business. Therefore, you need to know while marketing, you have to understand the methods involved.
Before you get into marketing ensure that your listings are correct, the pricing is apt as per the market competitors and you also need to have the needed knowledge to conduct marketing campaigns. Don’t be demotivated by this once you’re into the field you will learn the ins and outs of marketing with experience and training.
6. You will not have any personal time or social life
This can be a make-or-break factor for most people who are starting an eCommerce business. Most definitely you will not have any fixed time to spend with your family and friends. The reason behind this, being firstly workload, secondly, ongoing tension.
Work to be done will linger in the back of your mind always followed by ways to get the work done. Besides that, there will be constant worry about the incoming returns and/or other issues that you are facing. All this could numb your thinking senses and make you lose track of real-world events. Furthermore, constant worry could affect your mental physic. This is not to scare you away from the field but to ensure that you know what you are getting into.
Even so, these conditions will not affect everyone but if you are previously tensed and a bit weak-minded it would be recommended that you do not step into this field. Since the eCommerce sector is complex and it doesn’t work as a normal market store. You need to have a good understanding and know not everything is as simple as the advertisements or as people make it seem. This is why it is advisable to not step into the eCommerce business without prior knowledge of the market.
7. You might get carried away with the wrong product selection
While starting an eCommerce article you also have to take note of this point. This is a common problem when it comes to eCommerce business. There could be plenty of reasons behind purchasing the product, it was a good recommendation from a person; since no one else was selling the product at the time and a lot more reasons.
This all combined could demotivate you in the business and it always does happen and expect it to happen with a seller at some point or the other. By keeping this failure and loss in mind if you get demotivated and do not want to continue the business. This way you will not be able to build your business. As you can find endless reasons to quit your eCommerce business but a handful of reasons to keep going. Therefore making this industry the most lucrative yet most complex industry to be in.
8. You may leave all other sources of income to indulge with your eCommerce business.
Many a time, before starting an eCommerce business a person resigns from their previous jobs. This would be the biggest mistake you could possibly do and you need to be alert and avoid this mistake. This is a result of people becoming confident and then over-confidently diving headfirst into the field. Try to avoid this as much as possible. Alternatively, you can look into dropshipping model modes for your business.
In this mode, you wouldn’t have to deal with the warehousing, packing, and delivery of the product. All you have to do is make the product listing and later forward the order to the manufacturers. Here your investment will be much lesser, almost close to zero. The only charges that you would be facing would be the membership fees if any for the listing and that’s about it. Here you are saving a lot more than you would expect and hence would not even need to resign from your job.
9. Lack of product research
Just because a person (friend or foe) recommends you a product or that you find something appealing in the market doesn’t become a valid reason for choosing the products to be sold on your online site. You need to do some research, check the pricing and value for the product, look for the demand from the consumer’s end, and as well as how many sellers are selling this item in the market. Failing to do this you would put up listings and yet not get any orders, leading to losses, frustration, demotivation.
Even after years, the products might still be there and you would come to a point where you would have to leave this business. This would be one of the biggest mistakes you could do in your business. The best you can do is research the markets before purchasing the product. This would be a much safer way to conduct your business.
10. You might not have the needed confidence to survive the competition.
When you are starting an eCommerce business if you do not have the required confidence to even motivate yourself against all odds to work hard and succeed with your business. Even in the face of loss giving up shouldn’t be an option for your business, if this isn’t your attitude then you won’t survive in the eCommerce field.
Even if your mind is a bit shaky that if it works out well and good otherwise you’d shift your profession. This mindset too will not help you last in the market. Since day one you are setting the business upon the basis of doubt and failure. Therefore, you wouldn’t put in the efforts and hard work to ensure that it succeeds. As your alternative thought is already an escape plan; this would be the main reason for your business to not work out.
Conclusion
So these are some main points for you to consider while starting your eCommerce business. This had to be put out there, as there are a tonne of people who get into the eCommerce market with a wrong view and end up with huge losses.
These situations too harm the family life and well-being. Therefore make sure you know all the aspects of eCommerce before you get into the business and not just go with the words of people. That being said, we wish you all the best in your future eCommerce business!
