Roadmap of E-commerce - How to Build a Successful E-commerce Business?

In today's conditions, times are changing rapidly. More people want to be their own boss and take control of their own future. The internet makes achieving this goal more accessible than ever before, and e-commerce offers an exciting path to success.
However, it can be extremely difficult to know exactly how to start an ecommerce business that can actually generate income. Getting lost in so much information and so many e-commerce terms requires making a plan of action to prioritize your resources when creating your own e-commerce business plan.
This guide offers a simple, honest approach to topics like e-commerce marketing and offers tips on product sourcing. It also includes other essential tips for those considering starting a successful online store.
We've covered these topics in detail on our blog, but this post summarizes everything you need to start an ecommerce business and make it successful. Without further ado, let's get started.

How to Build a Successful Ecommerce Business

When asked how to start an e-commerce business, the following factors may come to mind:
Great website design, superior customer support service, high quality product image, unique selling proposition..  These are all true, this thought process makes sense. To be successful, you must provide excellent customer support service. If you want people to buy from you, you need an attractive and reliable website.
But remember, what makes an e-commerce business great is when these factors work together. These factors are what takes an ecommerce store from 1 to 10, not from 0 to 1.
We see this all too often with first-time entrepreneurs – they can lose sight of the most important things and end up shutting down their day of building a perfect store just a month later. Sales are what really power your store, and this should be at the center of your ecommerce business plan.
Efforts to drive traffic to your store through e-commerce marketing will bring sales, and sales will bring you more traffic. Likewise, you need to sell before you can provide excellent customer support service to shoppers on your site and establish your brand's unique voice.

How to Start E-commerce:

Steps to Start an E-commerce Store
While it's great to start your new ecommerce business with big ideas, we recommend focusing on the most practical steps first.
First, you need a really good e-commerce infrastructure to sell your products.
Weeyn's 30+ theme options serve this purpose perfectly.
Remember the famous words of LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman: "If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've started too late."
These words also apply to e-commerce businesses. The key is to launch quickly and start thinking of ways to sell through ecommerce marketing. This will eventually lead to opportunities to improve other things.
And once you start your ecommerce business, use this handy checklist to make sure you're taking all the right steps:
1.    Finding E-commerce Products
If you're completely new to the world of ecommerce, you're probably wondering exactly what you should sell. In fact, this is one of the things that is a big reason to start your own ecommerce business.
You have to be strategic in identifying a set of products or a single item that is actually trending or not readily available on popular e-commerce sites or stores like Trendyol, Hepsiburada, Amazon, etc.
Therefore, choosing the route of selling general products such as books or jewelry will likely lead to a dead end. There are already many major players meeting these demands.
Instead, you'll want to choose more specific products that appeal to a specific audience. We recommend making a list of potential products you want to sell in your store. Think about things that might interest you, your friends, co-workers, or family. Also, explore social selling sites like Pinterest, Etsy, or even Instagram to get more information on the products you want to sell.
You can literally find inspiration anywhere, and you can always verify if your product ideas are good by searching them on Google Trends.

How Will You Supply Your Products?
At this point, you may be wondering how exactly to source your products, which is where dropshipping can come into play as a viable option for your e-commerce business plan.
Dropshipping is an increasingly popular business model among entrepreneurs because it has significantly lower startup investment costs and is often a lower-risk alternative to more traditional e-commerce business models, such as finding suppliers and stocking inventory yourself.
Think about how it works: on a dropshipping platform like Alibaba, you find suppliers of the products you want to sell, and then import these products into your store. When a customer purchases one of these products, you place the order with one of our incredible suppliers and they ship the product directly to the customer. In this way, you do not have to deal with the materials and you can change the products more easily according to current trends.
Apps like Alibaba automate many processes for you. This way, you'll have more time to focus on things that will help you scale your business, like creating a great e-commerce marketing strategy.

2. Research Other Online Businesses
Research is essential to the success of your ecommerce store. After choosing your products, examine your competitors and what they do. Here are a few things you should pay attention to when doing competitor analysis:
What is the business model?
Do they sell multiple products or just one?
What social media channels do they use?
Who is the target audience?
How are they trying to sell? (e.g. paid social media, PPC, SEO, email, etc.)
Competitor analysis can lead you to identify products that will sell better and gain a great understanding of how to start an online business. It can also help you avoid dropshipping mistakes that entrepreneurs often make when it comes to product selection.

3.Creating Your Online Store
If you have selected your products and completed your competitor research, the next step is to create your store. Open your e-commerce store in minutes with Weeyn e-commerce infrastructure. Weeyn has an easy-to-use online ecommerce store builder that doesn't need a lot of themes and coding input to get started.
When creating your e-commerce store, choose a theme that suits your target audience and set prices that reflect your vision of success. Choosing a catchy name for your e-commerce business will ensure that people remember you. This is appropriate for the logo to be equally colorful or creative.
Once the website is ready to take orders, be sure to try a test order yourself to make sure the process is smooth for the customer. Reduce the additional steps required to purchase something online and only ask for the information necessary for the checkout process.

4. Promoting Your E-commerce Business
After launching your store,

Success in E-commerce: What's the Next Step?

Once you've validated your store idea and secured a steady flow of sales, be sure to continue optimizing your ecommerce business. Here are a few additional tips you may want to consider when starting your e-commerce operation;

1.    Deliver Excellent Customer Service
Approximately 45% of consumers abandon an online transaction if their questions or concerns are not addressed quickly. Exceptional customer service is vital to the long-term success of your business. Create self-service content and create a detailed FAQ page, offer live chat support, encourage product reviews, and build trust with your customers. All of this will provide your store with valuable social proof and create repeat customers that are five times cheaper than new customers.

2.    Focus on Conversion Optimization
On average, 69% of visitors to your website will leave without making a purchase. How much would your revenue increase if you were converting these visits into sales? Optimize your customer journey. Create limited time offers. Start a cart abandonment email campaign. You can even set up a re-targeting campaign. Try a number of different tactics and figure out which one works best for your business.

3.     Work on Store Optimization
Remember, 44% of online shoppers will tell a friend about a bad online experience. Once you've laid the foundations of your e-commerce business, the next important step is to optimize your website. Increase your website speed. Create a user-friendly navigation bar. Focus on creating great product pages. View related products. Optimize your store search. Finally, check how your store looks on mobile devices.
4.    Update Your Stocks Frequently
Best-selling items often fall out of favor quickly, so stocks are crucial. Look for new product ideas that can continue to drive traffic to your store. Don't base all your sales on just a few products. Instead, introduce new arrivals to your existing customers and test new product ideas frequently based on Google Trends.

Summary: How to Start an Online Ecommerce Business Why Nobody Shops at Your Store – and What You Can Do About It

I know some people have found success by focusing their attention on a unique niche product or exceptional customer service. However, up to 50% of online stores receive no sales. While this may seem like a very low number of e-commerce businesses successfully taking off, when compared to general business success rates (10%), it is a promising number.
In summary, here are a few highlights from this guide on how to start an ecommerce business:
Check out the latest product trends.
Research other ecommerce businesses.
Source products via dropshipping suppliers.
Create an online e-commerce store with Weeyn.
Promote through free marketing channels.
Provide excellent customer service.
Focus on conversion optimization.
Optimize your e-commerce site.
Update your stocks frequently.
We hope this article helped you understand how to start an e-commerce business. You have everything you need to make your store take off this year, and we're happy to help you achieve that goal every step of the way.

Frequently Asked Questions About E-commerce

How to Start an E-commerce Business Without Spending Money?
Honestly, starting an ecommerce business requires at least some capital. Because this is a product-based business model that requires creating an online store, marketing, and investing in the growth of your brand.
However, you can start a cost-effective ecommerce business by choosing dropshipping as your business model, using free marketing channels, and building brand awareness through word-of-mouth strategies.

Is an Ecommerce Business Profitable?

In a word: yes. But making a profit is an e-commerce entrepreneur's marathon, not a sprint. Realistically, it may take 18-24 months to see your first profit. That's why we recommend that you don't measure your success by your net profit in the first year of your e-commerce venture.